Truest Destiny
by Heaven1yHands
Summary: After two long years, Tak has finally come home from training in the Juju Realm, and Zaria is getting prepared for her new role as Cheif. Everything seems to be back to normal, but That doesn't seem to be good enough for Jeera. Teera/JeeraTak . PREVIOUSLY TITLED "And You Can't Stop Me"
1. An Old Freind

It was a beautiful day in the Pupanunu village. Birds chirped as the sun shined brightly through the leaves of the peaceful jungle trees, and cute little animals frolicked around minding their own business. While somewhere in that mix, there were two sisters who disturbed this peaceful scene.

"Ugh, Zaria! It would be nice if you actually _helped_ me out here!" Jeera called back to her sister.

Jeera and Zaria were out in the jungle, getting Tutimi fruits for the upcoming festival. Or else they were supposed to be. Since Zaria took it upon herself to help 'supervise', while Jeera and her monkey companion, Winsor, did all the work.

"What? And risk messing up my nails? Um, I don't think so. I'm the future Chief; I don't deserve to do work. And it's not like I wanted to have this festival anyway. He's _your _boyfriend." Zaria said as she continued to paint her nails.

_He's NOT my boyfriend, _Jeera thought to herself.

After two long years, the Pupanunu village had gotten word from a Juju messenger that Tak and Jibolba were finally coming back from training in the Juju realm. This relieved many of the villagers, who realized how hard it really was to do things without the Juju magic. Even Blod and Bleeta even cheered a little when they heard the news. While Jeera was especially excited. She was actually the one to bring up the festival idea to her father.

"Well, if you're not going to help, then why are you still here?!" Jeera asked Zaria.

"Hmmm, good point. All this sun _is_ making my skin dry. So, I'll be at the house if you need me." Zaria said as she got up from the rock and started to walk away.

"Oh, whatever." Jeera said to herself. "Now that she's gone, we can finally to get back to work, right Winsor?"

Her monkey companion screamed and jumped around in reply. It seemed that he was ready for the festival already.

After a few more minutes, Jeera and Winsor filled up the big blue basket with all the fruits it could hold, and started heading back to the village to make the fruit into her 'Amazing Cupcakes', as the Pupanunu like to call them. Really, it's just a recipe her mother had left behind before she died. Jeera didn't think it was a big deal. Though her father thought it was the best thing in the world.

_**Later**_

Jeera entered the hut and shut the door behind her as she called out to her father.

"Hey dad! I'm back with the tutimi fruits! No thanks to Zaria!"

She took a few steps forward, hoping to hear a reply from her father. She didn't hear any. Winsor started jumping and screaming like he usually does, and pointed towards the throne.

She looked around the big basket of fruits in front of her to the throne that sat at the back of the big room. Instead of seeing her father in his usual seat, she saw Zaria; filing her nails as always, with quite an amused look on her face.

"What are you doing in Dad's seat? You_ know_ he told you not to." She said to her sister.

Zaria said nothing to her and kept filing her nails. Looking pretty amused while doing so. This made Jeera even angrier.

"Ooooh! You know what Zaria!" Jeera said, dropping the big basket of tutimi fruits on the floor. "You are getting on my last nerve! You're bossier than usual and you think you're the Chief of the village already! Well I ha-"

"Whoa, whoa! I come back to the see my old friend Jeera and she's having a hissy fit!" A voice said.

Jeera froze, and looked to her right to where the voice was coming from. There leaning on the wall with a sneer on his face, was her old friend, who she hadn't seen in two years, Tak.

Her mouth dropped.

As she looked at her friend, she noticed that there was something different about him. He actually looked, and she couldn't believe she was thinking this; but he was actually really- hot.

His hair had grown a couple of inches, and he had a little hair on his chin. They must have been doing some intense training in the Juju realm, because as she looked at him, he was way more- incredibly masculine than she remembered. It was hard to believe that the- man, standing in front of her was the same boy she grew up with.

"Mmmm, Tutimi fruit," Tak said as he grabbed a fruit off the top of the pile. "My, favorite. You know, the other villagers told me about your amazing cupcakes. Hope fully I could get to try them before their all gone at the festival tonight."

Just then Tak's Juju staff started to glow and shot sparks all over the place.

"Oh- oh, that's Jibolba now; he seems to be a little pissed." Tak said before sprinted towards the door to leave.

"Oh, I'll see you at the festival tonight, right Jeera?" He said to her.

"W- What? O- Oh, yeah." Jeera said still in shock.

Tak left with a smile, leaving Jeera standing stone- still in the same spot, staring after the place where he left.

"Mmmm, I would totally hit that if I was you." Zaria said to her sister as she bit her lip.

Jeera said nothing to her sister and still stood in the same spot with a shocked expression on her face. And as she stood there, she didn't have any other thoughts in her head except for "Whoa." She felt a little wired inside, like butterflies were fluttering around inside her ready to burst out. "Whoa, whoa, whoa." She repeated to herself over and over as she picked up the tutimi fruits that had fallen on the floor.

And Winsor just followed behind her oblivious to his friends strange behavior. All he was interested in were those cupcakes.

_Hope you all liked this chapter. _

_Please don't forget to R&R._


	2. Welcome Party

NOTE: Just so you know, I don't own any of these characters.

Ch. 3: Welcome Party

"Oh yeah! Now _this_ is what I call a party!" Tak cried as he danced to the beat.

The celebration had begun and everyone one was thrilled to have their shaman back in the village. The feast was the best the village had in years, and everyone was dancing the night away.

"Hey everyone look at this!" Tak said as he shot a blast into the sky. Candy started to poor from the sky, and all the children cheered in delight. Tak had gotten a lot better with his skills, and he was definitely glad to show them off.

"Well it certainly looks like you're having fun!" Jeera said as she caught a piece of candy in her palm and stood beside her friend.

"Well yeah, I mean, sure they had a lot of great parties in the Juju realm, but nothing beats the way Pupanunu throw down." He said with a smile that could make any girl melt like jelly.

"Oh Tak man, you don't know how much we missed you!" Keeko cried as he jumped on Tak's shoulders.

"Ow, get off! I think I get the idea!" Tak said as he struggled to keep them both up.

"I don't think you do!" Jeera yelled as she leaped onto the both of them, making all three of them tumble to the ground. They all laughed as they sat up on the ground.

"Wow I really missed these days." Tak said in a dreamy voice.

"Yeah…" Jeera and Keeko said together. They sat and watched everyone else enjoy the party for a while, until the chief called for the villages' attention. Everyone crowded around the stage to see what was going on.

"What's happening? Why'd your dad call us?" Tak ask Jeera.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, he didn't tell me anything about a surprise."

"Well hopefully he hasn't made another earwax ball." Keeko said.

"Attention all Pupanunu! We are very happy that you are enjoying this celebration, and we are especially happy to have our Shaman, Tak, back in our village!" He said as he gestured toward Tak. Jeera gave him a playful punch in the arm while Keeko gave him a pat on the back.

"And for this special occasion we have made this totem pole, with our tribes' most sacred animals to help keep our village safe and prosperous as the juju's watch over us." The chief said. The crowd applauded and cheered for the chief. Things were finally looking up for them, now that they have their shaman and their chief.

But as they cheered storm clouds appeared out of nowhere, leaving the starry night black and the moon disappeared. "_Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha, you Pupanunu's are so vulnerable. You think your safe with your little shaman and your pathetic excuse for a chief? Let's see how well they protect you now!" _The mysterious voice had said. Just then, a lightning bolt had hit the totem pole, and set it aflame.

"Oh no!" The chief cried. The Pupanunu's went off into frenzy.

"Tak what happening!" Keeko cried out as he held on to Tak and Jeera so they wouldn't get separated.

"How am _I_ supposed to know?!" Tak cried in confusion. He took out his staff and looked around. Whoever was doing this might still be around to cause more damage, so he had to stay on his toes._ 'Who is doing this? Why would they do this today? Unless they knew I was going to come back…' _

"Look out!" Tak heard Lok scream before he saved

Taks' thoughts were interrupted as he heard a cry from Jeera at his side.

"DADDY!" She yelled as tears formed in her eyes.

Tak looked to see the totem pole falling over right where the chief stood. But before he could stop it he felt hands grab him and pull him down. He tried to fight them, but the more he fought the more he realized that there wasn't anything there. He opened his eyes to see darkness around him. Though he could hear the screaming of the Pupanunu's ringing in his ears.

'_There all going to die anyways." _A toneless voice whispered in his ears. _'Just make it easier on yourself. Walk away…'_ It said, and he was right back in the village with the screaming villagers and Jeera shaking him. It took him a while to understand what she was saying until he realized that the chief was in trouble. With quick thinking he pointed to where the chief was and doused the flame before lifting the totem pole off of him. Jibolba and some other villagers help get him up (amazingly) and took him to his house.

"What is wrong with you?!" Jeera said as she pushed him aside to see her father. "I don't know what was wrong with me…" Tak said to himself. Keeko placed his hand on Taks' shoulder, worried about his friend. Tak looked at him and said again "I don't know."

Tak and Keeko entered through the doors to see Jeera with tears in her eyes waiting to hear the news about her father. The other villagers had already left, to help repair the damage outside.

"Jibolba's in there now." Jeera said softly.

"Did he give any news about the chief?" Keeko asked her.

"They just got in there. Jibolba won't give us the news until morning if it's that serious." Tak quickly regretted saying that when he saw Jeera's head droop down lower.

"Look Jeera, your dad's going to be okay, and you already know that." Tak told her, hoping it would cheer her up.

"Tak, you don't understand, the Tribe has gone through over the past two years with you and Jibolba gone. We thought we had it rough when you and Jibolba were here, then we realized we were nothing without the Juju's and your magic. Daddy had to take up responsibility for chief and shaman. It's just been so stressful on him Tak; I don't think he can take any more of this-"

"Jeera, your Dad's going to be just fine. He's our chief, who can take care of himself and the tribe. Don't have doubt in him; he's going to make it." Tak said as he put his arm over her shoulders. Jeera looked into his eyes and saw that he meant every word he said. A small smile formed on her face as he gave her a quick hug, which was weird because was never really the 'hugging' type.

"Well it looks like it's going to be a long night. How about some nice tunes while we wait?" Keeko asked them as he pulled out a gizmo from behind his back.

"Keeko how did you-"

"Just don't ask Tak." Jeera cut off. "That's something else we've learned over the last couple of years as well." She said as she sat on the floor next to where Keeko was playing.

"Okay- sure. Hey, whatever happened to Zaria and Lok? I thought those two would be here by now to check on the Chief." Tak asked them.

"Oh those two are probably off being all lovey-dovey with each other." Jeera said as she made a face.

"Whoa, those two are actually together now?! Well actually that's not really that big of a surprise. It would make sense that the two most ego-centric people of the village would get together. " Tak explained.

"Yeah, it's horrible! You should hear it when they start talking about getting married and having kids. You better believe the Tribe got bonus points when Love Juju came last year."

"Yeah, she was all like 'Oh that's so beautiful' and stuff, and then she gave ate tribe candy. Everyone was sick for like, two days or something." Keeko butted in.

"Yeah, you missed it, it was so fun, and kinda' gross at the same time." Jeera told him.

They all laughed as they talked about the latest news that happened since Tak was away. "Wow, you guys sound like you've had a blast over the years." Tak said as he took of his staff holder and laid it down by his side.

"Whoa dude, it looks like you've had one hack of a time in Juju world. Look at the size of that scar!" Keeko said as he leaned in closer to get a good look at the scar on Tak's back.

"Well it's not really a big-" Tak was cut off when he was tackled to the ground face first with a loud thud. "Oh my goodness, what happened?! Whoa it must have been a fifty foot Tyrannosaur or something!" Jeera claimed excitedly.

"Or a poisonous snake with 7 inch long teeth!" Keeko chimed in.

"Guys cut it out!" Tak said as he shoved Jeera and Keeko off of his form. "It's just a scar from one of my training missions. It was an accident…" Tak trailed off. Keeko and Jeera looked at each other in confusion. "Just forget it, it's nothing serious."

Jeera and Keeko decided to drop the question as well. They could tell Tak didn't want to talk about what happened, but still didn't understand why not. "Well at least let us get a good look at it." Keeko proclaimed.

Tak turned around to let them see it. The scar went from the tip of his left shoulder to the small of his back. It was hard to notice with his staff holder on his back amazingly.

"Well, I think is time we all went to sleep. This has been enough excitement for one day." Keeko said as he stretched himself out on the floor.

"That seems like a good idea right about now." Tak said as he let out a yawn and a stretch. He crossed his arms behind his head and leaned against the wall. He looked very comfortable.

"Hey Jeera you want a pillow?" Tak asked her.

"Nope, I'm good!" She said as she snuggled into his side. Tak was a little surprised by this, but he shrugged it off and put his arm around her, as he drifted off to sleep; a small smile on his face.

Yeah it been awhile since I updated this. Sorry! I tried to male this chapter really good for you guys. Hope you Like!


	3. Early suspicion

_**Notes: I don't own Tak; otherwise this story would probably be a movie.**_

**CH. 4: Early suspicion**

Jibolba sighed as he put his medical tools down on the table.

"Tell it to me straight Jibolba, how bad is it?" Chief asked; his eyes closed in fear of what he might see.

"You're fine Chief, you can open your eyes now." He replied with a little chuckle.

"Well, I better not see one of my legs amputated or something." He said in a doubtful voice. He slowly opened one eye, then the other one, and smiled as he wiggled his toes, showing that he had feeling in his leg.

"Wow Jibolba, you really are a miracle worker. All of my wounds are healed!"

"Well, not quite, your left leg was damaged very badly when that pole hit. Those bones have been through a lot these past years, so they weren't able to heal they used to. So you'll have to walk with a cane now."

"For how long?"

"Uh you'll have to use it about, the rest of your life." Jibolba said with a sheepish grin.

"Ah, I knew there was a catch." The Chief replied unusually calm. This actually confused Jibolba, though he was relieved that he wasn't depressed about it. "Where is Jeera, where are my daughters? I need to see them immediately!"

"I'll get them right away Chief, but right now we need to get you home so you can rest. I'll get some of the other villagers to come help you." Jibolba told him as he left the room. _'I wonder what he's got up his sleeve.' _He thought to himself as he shut the door behind him_._

A small smile formed on his face as he watched Tak, Jeera, and Keeko sleep peacefully next to the door. _'They must've been here all night.'_ He thought to himself. They really were worried about their chief. "They'll be happy to know that the chief is alright when they wake up. All I have to do is find the other daughter now."

"Oh, daddy I'm so glad you're okay!" Jeera cried as she wrapped her arms around her father's neck.

"Yeah that was so scary. What do you think all of that was about anyway?" Zaria asked.

The Chief, his daughters, Tak, Keeko, and Lok were all in the throne room discussing the events that had occurred the night before.

"Ah just like old times. Eh? Another villain comes to try and waste Tak, the tribe's in danger, and only 'The Lok' can save us!" Lok hollered as he made a heroic pose.

"What are you talking about? No one is trying to kill Tak." Jeera proclaimed.

"No I think he has a point Jeera; none of this happened before until I got here yesterday. But what I wonder is, if someone is after me who are they?" Tak pondered as he paced around the room. "I mean, they knew when I was coming back here. I thought only the tribe knew any of that information…" He drifted off.

There was an eerie silence in the room.

"So, you think someone in the tribe is trying to do you in?" Keeko asked him.

"Yeah, but who would want to get rid of Tak? He's the most powerful shaman in the country, why would someone…" Jeera paused.

Just then Tak, Jeera, and Keeko looked at each other simultaneously as they all had the same thought.

_Blod and Bleeta._

"Blod, Bleeta you come and open this door now!" Jeera screamed as she hammered on the Ongutaka's door.

Slowly the door opened and a scraggly pair of teens stood in the doorway.

"Whoa, you guys look awful." Tak told them.

"Oh, why do you people have to knock so loudly?!" Bleeta complained.

"All of that blasted lighting almost killed us last night. We barely made it back alive, if it wasn't for Jibolba's medicine, we probably wouldn't have made it!" Blod said dramatically.

"What is it that you want so we can go to bed?" Bleeta chimed in.

Jeera looked back to Tak and Keeko, who looked at her with just as confused faces. "Um, oh we were just doing a village check making sure that everyone was okay!" Jeera said with the fakest grin she could muster.

Slam the door went in her face.

"Well I guess they _didn't_ do it then." Tak suggested.

"Do you think they were lying?" Jeera asked him.

"I don't think so, those bruises looked pretty official; I doubt they would go through the trouble of hurting themselves for me. But now we still have to worry about who the culprit behind this mystery is." Tak explained to them both.

"Look all this talk about evilness and villains is totally depressing me man. How about we do something fun for once? I mean we should be celebrating some more, you're back! We should be happy" Keeko replied as he put his arm around Tak's left shoulder.

"Yeah Keeko's right, we should do something fun now that you're back! How about we take a swim in the lake?" She said as she out her arm around his other shoulder.

"Yeah, let's go! I haven't had a good swim in ages!" Tak cried as he ran towards the lake.

"Hey wait up!" Jeera cried as she ran to catch up with him.

"Ah yeah, Just like old times." Keeko commented as he joined the other two.

Yeah long time no update. Hopefully this chapter is another good one for you guys. I'm going to update a lot faster for the next one. hopefully +)


	4. A little change in plans

**Ch. 5: A little change in plans**

-"I guess your dad really likes to make announcements." Tak guessed as he, Jeera, and Keeko walked back to the village after their afternoon swim.

"I know, I wonder what's up; though it probably has something to do with last night. Hopefully it won't be another totem pole." She said as she dried her hair with a towel.

The tribe had once again assembled around the stage, though they were bruised and battered, waited for the Chief to arrive with his announcement. Once they all settled down, he started to speak.

"After last night's incident, I know you all may be a little shaken up from last night's events. However, we are the Pupanunu tribe! It will take a lot more than that to break our tribe! Moreover, as long as I am able to live, you do not have to worry. I will always be here for the tribe to get us through trouble and make good decisions for the tribe, which is why I decided to make this one."

"What is your dad talking about?" Tak asked Jeera.

"I don't know." She replied a worried expression on her face.

"After these past few years of thinking, I have decided to step down from my chief status-" Gasps of shock and mummers could be heard throughout the crowd, "and that now would be a good time for my eldest daughter, Zaria, our new chief."

"What?" Jeera cried in shock.

"YES!" Zaria exclaimed as she climbed on stage.

"Zaria has already passed her training to become the new Chief. However, she has not yet finished her final trial of leadership. We shall hold the annual ceremony of 'The Chief's Bearing' once she has passed the trial. Oh what a wonderful celebration it shall be!" He finished as he clasped his hands together.

They crowd was rowdy with surprise. They always knew that Zaria would become the next chief one day, but they never suspected it would be so soon.

"Complain not my people!" Zaria told them as she took a stance in the middle of the stage. "With Zaria as your Chief you will have no more to fear!" By this time though, the crowd around her had started to disperse as she started her dramatic speech about whatever she was rambling. Lok was the only one who stayed to listen.

"I can't believe Daddy would do something like this!" Jeera shouted angrily as she punched her pillow.

Tak, Jeera, and Keeko had retired to Jeera's room for a few hours. After the day's events they needed a breather.

"Well your dad has his reasons. As you told me, he has been through so much over these couple of years. It was just a matter of time before this happened." Tak told her.

"Yeah, well I still don't like it." She replied.

'_Wow after all this time she's still as stubborn as ever.' _He thought to himself. He could not help but smile at the scene. Once again, sparks started to shoot from Tak's staff, signaling that Jibolba needed him.

"Wow, a little over-kill on the decorations." Keeko told him.

"Yeah, well ever since Uncle learned how to do that little calling thing, or whatever it's called. He says he needs me to come and help with Zaria's Bearing Ceremony." Tak said as rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, and their making all the male villagers come and help as well. I might as well go with you, Tak. I'm trying to get this over with as soon as possible." Keeko said as he stood up off the floor.

"Oh fine I guess I'll see you later then, if Zaria doesn't brag me to death first." Jeera groaned as she watched them leave. She lied in her bed for a while thinking about the day. Everything was just so strange and confusing now. She felt this way two years ago when Tak left as well. This feeling was supposed to go away when he came back, right? Though it felt like something was- off; that something was wrong. However, everything is here; Tak is back in the village, and Zaria is becoming chief. Things are getting back to normal: sort of.

'_Well I don't like it normal'_ Jeera thought to herself. So jumbled her mind was with all these weird thoughts, she thought she would never get to sleep. Amazingly, she did however, though it was a restless one.

It was dark when she was awakened by a loud commotion down the hall. She groggily got out of bed to see what was going on. Of course, it was Zaria Whining about another pointless issue. Except she did not sound like her usual snobby self, she actually sounded like she was- scared. (?)

"No, I won't go!" Jeera heard as she moved closer to her sister's bedroom.

"But Zaria, you must! All future heirs have to go through with the crowning ritual to prove they are worthy to become Chief! It is tradition." She heard her father plead.

"Well I change the ritual!"

"You can't change ritual Zaria, or do you not want to become Chief?!"

"NO! I give up my chair! I am no longer the future chief anymore! I promise you father, I WILL NOT GO THROUGH WITH IT!" Zaria screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Zaria, stop being so selfish; how can you say 'No' when a whole tribe needs you?!" He shouted.

Jeera jumped when she heard him. He had never used that tone of voice with either of them before. He must really be mad at Zaria.

Buy this time though, Jeera was already creeping back to her room, making sure she wasn't heard. _'Wow maybe being chief isn't as easy as it looks if it can make Zaria want to give it up. Whatever this ritual is, it must be harsh.'_ She thought to herself. Then she remembered something. About two years ago, Psychic Juju had predicted something that had devastated her once, though really it explains this whole situation.

~~~~~~~~ Flash back~~~~~~~~

"_Oh wow, that sinkhole was killer!" Tak Groaned as he stretched one arm. His other arm was in a sling, along with some other villagers, thanks to Psychic Juju who had warned them about where the last sinkhole would be after it happened._

"_Yeah next time I'm going to climb in a tree the whole season. You know, sinkholes never form around trees." Keeko said as he tried to scratch around the bandage on his head._

"_Ow! That hurt! You dare damage your beautiful future chief!" Zaria cried as one of the female villagers painted her nails, since she happened to be injured as well when the sinkhole hit._

"_Future Chief? You must have forgotten Zaria, Psychic Juju just predicted that you weren't going to become chief!" Jeera said in a matter-of-fact tone._

_The whole village paused and stared at Jeera._

"_Me, not chief; Ha, wherever did you get that stupid idea." _

"_Um, I just told you, Psychic Juju said so, duh!"_

_The whole tribe started to laugh at her. How can anyone think that Zaria was not going to be chief?_

"_Jeera, you probably had a bad dream after that nasty fall last night." Her father chuckled. "Of course Zaria is going to be the chief."_

"_No, Psychic Juju said it himself last night! Don't you guys remember?" Jeera asked in a confused voice._

_The Tribe continued to laugh along with Zaria. The whole village had forgotten everything that happened the day before. Maybe they all had _amnesia _or something._

"_Don't worry Jeera, we still remember." Tak and Keeko whispered to her._

Jeera thought back to that day as she crossed the bridge to Psychic Juju's assembling point. Everyone else may have forgotten that day, but she still remembered, and she was going to find the underlying cause of this 'Chief' business finally. She knew she was not imagining things, since Tak and Keeko both remembered it as well.

A puff of smoke appeared before her as she stood at Psychic Juju's assembling point. She may not have had the power of Juju, but she knew how to summon one. The tribe had to come up with some way to summon the Juju's themselves' while Tak was away, even if it was just one.

"Yes what is it that you Pupanunu want now?" The Juju asked in a frustrated tone. He looked down expecting to see the whole village down there- again- but was surprised when he saw only Jeera standing there.

"Oh it's just you. What brings you to my calling point so late in the evening my young princess?"

"You read minds don't you? See for yourself."

"Fine, hmm, I see that you think that the tribe is full of half brained, imbeciles-"

"No not that, sheesh, you never read the right thing." She complained. "You do remember that night when you told the tribe that Zaria was not the future chief, right?"

He gave her a suspicious look before he answered, "yes I do remember-"

"Good, well then answer me this; if Zaria's not the future chief, then who is?"

Psychic Juju was about to say something, but he paused with a look of complexity on his face.

"What you don't know?"

"Well of course I know young mortal, I know everything; but there are some restrictions keeping one from spilling such secrets. You see, I can't actually reveal who the future chief would be in any tribe. Otherwise, that person probably wouldn't make it to their crowning day. You know how you mortals can get so envious."

Jeera was a little disappointed by this answer, but that just brought up another question for her. "So say if the supposed chief decided to give up her- their chair, how would someone go about becoming chief then?"

"Well I don't exactly know how one would go through the trails, she's very strict about these things you know-"

"Who's 'She'?"

He continued as if he didn't hear her. "Though I do know where you can find out about that information; though only the heirs who have gone through 'The Chief's Bearing' should know that." He said as he gave her a leering look. "You must go to the Burial Mound and find the tomb of 'Ranten the Knowledgeable'. Held there is where all of the oldest scrolls in the region, but you need to find the one about chief leadership, or something along those lines. What it is called, however, I do not know."

"Hmm, the graveyard, huh?" She pondered to herself as she started to walk away.

"A warning to you young chieftess, be sure to be out of the graveyard before nightfall."

"Why before nightfall, what are the ghosts going to come and get me?" She asked with a nervous chuckle.

Trust me; there are just some places you don't want to be when the lights go out." He replied before he teleported away back to the Juju realm.

Yeah updated this story again. Hopefully I can update this again during Thanksgiving break.


	5. A Daring Deed: A hint of jealousy

_Yeah, this chapter actually has two names for it. They both have something to do with this chapter, so it seemed like a good idea to combine them._

_Tak and the other characters belong to Nick.  
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The 'Chief's bearing' Ceremony was canceled. When Zaria refused to finish her training they didn't have a choice but to, though the chief didn't tell the village the real reason why. He's probably working out a plan to get Zaria to change her mind. Fortunately for Jeera though, now that she has a chance to sneak away from the village, since everyone was busy taking down decorations from the supposed-to-be 'Wonderful Celebration'.

Jeera stood in front of the cave-like entrance of the graveyard's lift with hesitation. The graveyard always did give her the creeps. Even when she was a little girl and her father took her to the tooth portion of the graveyard, she always put up a fight to go. She took a deep breath and stepped into the mouth of the entrance leading to the lift. With every step she took, the more fear started to overcome her. Once Jeera finally made it to the lift, though she took caution stepping onto it, like it could fall at any minute. She reached for the handle of the lift to go down, but was too afraid to go through with it. Her hand stopped shakily in mid-grab when she realized that she was actually too scared to go through with this. She thought about what Psychic Juju told her before he disappeared last night, and figured she didn't want to go to the graveyard all by herself. Of course she wasn't stupid enough to stay in the graveyard after dark, but the place in general was frightening in general. Maybe she could ask someone to come with her to get the book? '_Yeah, that's what I'll do',_ she thought to herself as she made a quick dash from the graveyard entrance.

She didn't stop running until she thought she was a safe distance away from that place. Breathing heavily, Jeera slowed to a walk as she tried to calm her nerves. "Oh man, I am stupid!" She said as she smacked herself on the head. She felt like a big chicken at that moment; she couldn't even go to the graveyard because she was too afraid! But you have to admit, the graveyard was pretty scary with all of those stray nergals still lurking around and wandering spirits haunting the grave-sites.

"Oh Tak, I cannot _believe_ that it's actually been two years since I've last laid eyes on you."

Jeera snapped out of her thoughts when she heard a devious Bleeta's loud obnoxious tone exclaim. She followed that voice to small mire on the lakes edge. She camouflaged herself behind a bush to get a good view of what Bleeta was up to. She saw Bleeta and Tak sitting on a large rock; Bleeta sitting a little too close to Tak, who seemed to look very uncomfortable with her being that close. "It seemed like just yesterday when we used to- hang out together!" She said as she placed her hand on his arm. "It's been so boring without you here to play with; I've missed all of those wacky adventures we used to have."

"Wait, by adventures you mean when you and Blod used to make plans to kidnap me, ruin my life and steal my juju powers?" Tak corrected her.

"Oh Tak, you take things so personally! You know me and Blod were only just kidding with you, we never meant any _real_ harm." She finished as she moved her hand from his arm to his chest.

Jeera was about to pounce out of the bushes just then before she heard a clueless Blod cry out from behind her.

"Bleeta, where are you!" he shouted. Thankfully Jeera ducked just in time before Blod entered tumbling from the forest. "Bleeta what have you been doing this whole time?! I've been waiting for hours on Chicken Island, and you've been spending time with this simpleton?" He said as he pointed a finger a Tak.

"Hey!" Tak croaked.

"Blod, I think that can wait until later, can't you see I'm a little _preoccupied _right now?" She uttered through clenched teeth.

"Oh really, well I guess you wouldn't mind telling mummy that you were too busy to get her eggs for breakfast tomorrow!" Blod jeered before he took off into the forest once again.

"Blod you stop that, get back here!" Bleeta cried before she took off after him.

"Okay, that was weird." Tak mumbled to himself as he slid of the rock.

"Yeah, I guess it is weird that you and Bleeta were hanging out all day." Jeera remarked as she stepped out of her hiding spot.

"Jeera, what are you doing in the bushes? Were you just spying on me?"

"What, no, spying? Of course not, why would I want to spy on you? I mean come on; I have better things to do." She exclaimed as she tried to hide the pink in her face. "I'm just walking around, that's not a crime is it?"

"I guess not, but the village is two miles away, and I've never seen you this close to the graveyard before. You know, unless your dad was dragging you down here with half of the village. I thought you said you'd never come down here after that 'Night of the living teeth' episode."

"Well, I got over it. A lot can happen over two years Tak." She said as she started back towards the path to the village.

"Well I guess so, but it's still weird." He stated as he followed behind her. "You know, we used to have a lot of fun back then."

"Back then? You make it sound like we haven't seen each other in a hundred years! But you know we could've had a lot more fun if you didn't leave us!" She replied as she stepped in front of his path.

"What, you act like that whole thing was _my_ idea!" Tak replied defensively.

"Well if you didn't leave none of this would be happening! Daddy wouldn't be too hurt to do his job, and Zaria wouldn't be almost-chief, and I wouldn't have to-" she paused. She almost revealed her secret plan! What would Tak think if he knew what she was up to?

"You wouldn't have to what Jeera? You didn't have to spend almost every day trying to fend for yourself in some weird, disgusting, unknown realm trying to get your magic skills better. You think you guys had it rough here, well it wasn't a walk in the park for me either!" Tak said as he rubbed his hand on his forehead. "I thought we discussed this the day I left."

Jeera was silent after that. She didn't mean to make Tak mad; she knew that it wasn't his idea to leave for two years, but she still couldn't help being mad at him.

"I just... missed you." She whispered in a low tone, as she dropped her head.

Tak's face relaxed a bit. He hated to see Jeera in any kind of negative mood, but at that moment he didn't know what to do. Should he say he was sorry? Should he just forget about it?

Tak embraced Jeera in a hug. That's what you're supposed to do in a moment like this right? Now Jeera was confused! Should she hug back?

"You know I missed you guys too, Jeera." Tak whispered to her.

Her heart started to flutter, she felt a sting in her eye from tears threatening to fall. She was blushing. Wait, she was blushing because of Tak?! This wasn't the first time they've hugged. But why was she so jittery now? Maybe it was because he felt so warm. It was the perfect moment. The sun was shining brightly through the leaves and a cool breeze blew through the forest. Jeera noticed that it was mostly sunny days now that Tak had been back.

This reminded Jeera of a story she once heard when she was in the women's club, when the two lovers finally admitted their- wait, why was she thinking that again!

"Come on you two love-birds." They heard a voice shout from a distance.

"Hey, we're not lovebirds!" They both shouted at the same time.

Keeko had a confused look on his face as he held two toko birds on what seemed to be leashes.

"What, oh I didn't even see you guys. I was talking to these two birds right here; they can't keep their feathers off of each other. But, you know, if you wanted me to call you two love-birds then I can."

"Oh shut up Keeko. Wait, why exactly are you walking two toko birds? I didn't know you had pets." Jeera questioned.

But before Keeko could answer, they heard a loud explosion erupt from the village, along with a smoke stream rising to the sky.

"Of course, the village is in trouble, once again." Jeera said in an exasperated tone.  
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"Blod, Bleeta, you two stop that this instant!" Mr. Ungataka cried as he tried to calm his unruly children.

Blod and Bleeta seemed to be on a rampage. What started out as a small argument seemed to cascade into a full out war. Somehow, the two had managed to find some strange grenade like weapons; but then again they could have just gotten then as presents from their naive parents.

"Now what are those two up to?!" Jeera screamed when she saw the scene. Of course she was used to the two causing trouble in the village, but seeing them actually fighting each other threw her off.

"I've got it covered Jeera!" Tak cried. He shot a couple of white blasts from his staff. One of them hit Bleeta right on target and a bubble formed around her just as she was about to fire a shot at Blod. The explosion erupted inside of the bubble along with Bleeta and smoke filled the entire sphere. The same thing happened with Blod.

"Whoa, nice shooting." Jeera admitted. That was easier than she was expecting. Maybe Tak training in the Juju realm paid off after all.

"Oh the pain, it hurts so badly!" Bleeta wailed in her most dramatic tone.

"My baby!-" Mrs. Ungataka cried as she ran to her daughter's side. "I thought you were supposed to use your magic to help our village! Not harm innocent children."

"Innocent- didn't you just these two almost destroy half of the village?! If we wanted to we could have them put in jail for terrorizing the place!" Jeera exclaimed as she stormed over to the scene.

"It's alright mummy, I guess we do need to be punished for our wrong doing." She said as she put her arm on her forehead in a dramatic fashion. When Tak approached them, she slowly sat up, and Jeera could have sworn she saw an evil glint in her eye when she saw him.

"And I do apologize to you Tak, for putting you through all of this trouble." She grabbed his arm and forcefully pulled him down to her side, though no one but Jeera probably noticed. "A little apology present from me to you." She finished with a big kiss- on the lips.

For the seventeenth time in a row Tak washed his mouth out with muddy water (mostly mud) from the lake, never fully getting rid of the horrible feeling that he was kissed- by Bleeta!

"Dude, it's gonna be okay, breathe or you're gonna suffocate with mud. Here drink this; it should get the feeling out." Keeko passed him a cup with an umbrella in it. As soon as he took a whiff of the strange substance inside it he realized that this cups nice appearance was definitely deceiving.

"Ugh, that smells disgusting!"

"Trust me it'll work." He reassured.

Tak made a face before he forced down the foul liquid. He shivered as it traveled throughout his system, "It's not disgusting enough," he said, though he had to force down the urge to throw-up, "maybe I should pay a visit to repugnant Juju, to see what he has in stock."

"Yeah, but I don't think anything can save Bleeta from Jeera's wrath, did you see the look on her face when she- well I guess you couldn't see it since you were getting slobbered on, but man, she looked like she was going to pounce right there." He laughed.

"I should have used some magic on her. She did it in front of the whole village, including her parents! Hopefully they'll ground her for life for kissing an 'unworthy peasant' or something. But I'll be going into hiding soon, so that doesn't really matter." Tak said planned.

"Look, don't worry about it, I'm pretty sure that the whole tribe will forget about it soon enough. It's probably one of her evil plans to get your magic juju powers anyway, trying to get in your head or something." He poked Tak's head.

"Yeah, maybe I should just keep my guard up. Don't know what could be coming around the corner next." Tak shook his head. He knew that coming home would bring changes after two years, but he didn't think the tribe would be so out of whack! He didn't know what to make of the scenes that played out the two weeks he'd been back. This was not the same old, dysfunctional, predictable Pupupnunu village he was expecting. He should stop expecting things.

"Oh, that- that, witch! How could she just kiss him like that!? And in front of the whole village too!" Jeera shouted in disbelief. Not wanting to go home and hear Zaria's taunting, she decided to go Navis' small hut (where her dad used to keep his earwax ball). He didn't come up to barely her ankle now, but as a tendency of all gretch they eat an outrageous amount, so it was safer for everyone to keep him here. It was comforting to have someone/thing to talk to and not be judged. She could talk to Walter about these things, but he had a bit of a wild side to him. Not that she minded that, but she wasn't trying to risk of him destroying half of her home- again. But if she ever needed something to help her get back at Bleeta, she knew where to go.

"She just did that to tick me off, and its working!" Jeera groaned as she sat down beside her little gretch. "If I were chief she wouldn't be getting away with any of this, her or Blod either." She imagined. Then she plotted. From everything that was going on and the information she had at the time, Jeera already knew what she wanted to do: become chief of the tribe, make the village a happier, safer place to live. But how exactly she was going to do it, she hadn't planned just yet. But one thing she knew for certain that she had to do was get up very early.

"Hey Navis, you wanna come with me somewhere tomorrow?" She asked her little gretch.

Navis replied with a 'yes', as he snuggled her with kisses, happy to get out.

"Good, I'll come get you early, before the sun rises." She said before she left out. She decided to bring Walter along too, just for extra company in the graveyard. She had a plan, and it was formulating in her brain, about to manifest itself in a few hours.


	6. Just getting Started

_Yeah, the next chapter to my story is here. I wanted to update this one real soon, because I need to update my stories quicker._

_Disclaimer: Tak does not belong to me, nor do any of these characters, blah, blah._

_And I also found out that Jeera's monkey's name is Walter. Just in case you wanted to know..._

Jeera took a deep sigh as she stood on the lift that led to the graveyard. "Okay you guys, let's go." She said to Walter and Navis; though it was really meant to calm _her_ nerves more than theirs.

The lift came down. She started seeing the fog, the further down they went, the denser it became; diffidently not helping her calm her nerves. It finally came to a stop once they reached the graveyard floor. She didn't want to get off. It was still pretty dark; she wanted to make sure that she had enough time to find Ranten's tomb and find the book, so she actually woke _before _dawn came, and got Walter and Navis as well. Did it matter if it was early in the morning dark, or late in the evening dark?

"Alright, we're looking for the tomb of this guy named Ranten." She informed them again, though it was probably pointless to, since they knew as much about the graveyard as she did. But if she wanted to get this done soon, she would have to do something than just stay in one spot all day.

So they began to walk. Jeera looked around for clues that could lead to this guy's tomb, but she was frightened more by what she saw around her to really focus on her goal. Bones of who knows what were lying everywhere, some of them as small as Navis, others larger than even her. She started having doubts of whether or not this was a good idea. Then she started to panic. What if they never find Ranten's tomb? What if they get lost and can't find their way back?

Jeera made sure to get up early enough so they could have plenty of daylight to spare, but the whole thing was pointless if they never found their destination. She almost wanted to tell Navis and Walter to just turn back with her; leave and forget the whole plan, when she was distracted by a small, bright, red light coming towards her way.

"You look like a lost, nosy wanderer." It spoke to her in a feminine voice. It floated around her, making little bits of light fall to the ground around her as well.

"Yeah, you could tell! What are you anyway, I hope I'm not going crazy and starting to see hallucinations." She told it.

The ball stopped and flew a few feet up in the air in front of her. The ball shone brightly for a split second, blinding Jeera, and when it toned down, Jeera noticed that it was actually in the form of a girl. She had fiery red hair that stood in almost spikes, orange-like skin, and wore reddish-brown clothes.

"Hey, my name is Fauna. You've probably heard all about me from that loser Tak."

"Hmm, Fauna, yeah I remember him telling me about how you turned him into a bear-squirrel thing once."

"Hey, that wasn't just me, Fauna did that too, but of course he always says the good things about her, they always say the good things about Flora." She said going into a self rant.

"Yeah, that's nice, well I guess we'd better get going, we've got something to find and not a lot of time." Jeera said not trying to waste her time with some strange Juju.

"Wait, I thought you guys would need some help with that, I mean, how are you going to find Ranten's tomb if you don't know where to look? I know Psychic Juju was skimpy on the details, he always does that."

"How do you know we were looking for his tomb? Did Psychic Juju tell you that?"

"Well duh, of course he did dummy, even you humans should know how much of a blabber mouth he is, and the entire Juju realm is always willing to hear juicy gossip about you mortals. Thought I don't understand why. But anyways, word got around to little ole' me and I decided that I would come and help you out. Free of charge, no strings attached; as long as you don't tell anyone about this, and if you can get the Pupanunu to celebrate a festival in my honor that would be great." She finished.

"Hey I thought you said no strings attached!" Jeera pointed out. "And I don't think that I will be able to do that. I mean who would listen to me? The tribe would never do that."

"Oh yeah, I did say that didn't I? Well, I thought it would be simple enough for the future chief of the Pupanunu, shouldn't it? The whole point of having a chief was to do everything they say, follow the rules and all of that junk, right?" She floated down to Jeera's level. "So what, I help you become chief, you throw me a festival; we got a deal?" She stuck out her hand.

It made Jeera a little peeved that the whole Juju world knew what her plan was, but she guessed it couldn't be helped now. She was getting help with her problem, so it didn't seem all that bad.

"Hmm, alright it's a deal." Jeera said as she shook her hand. "But why do you want a festival anyways, you don't seem to really care about the Pupanunu that much."

Fauna thought about her answer."Hmm, I don't know- I guess I just like the fact of being famous." She said, a dreamy look in her eyes. "Anyways, we have same place to find right now."

Fauna transformed back into her little light ball and swirled around in circles multiple times, making Jeera's head spin along with her. "Okay, Ranten's tomb is just around this mountain base, but it looks like there's some type of puzzle you have to solve to get through. We have to hurry in case that takes up a lot of time, come on I'll show you."

She said as she whizzed of in front of them. Jeera looked over at Walter, who shrugged his shoulders at her. Then she looked down at Navis who looked back at her with a confused look.

"Hey are you coming, we don't have all day!" Fauna shouted at her.

'_Well it's not like I have a choice in this matter.'_ She thought to herself as she, Walter, and Navis followed the Juju. At least they were starting to make progress now.

They walked around the mountains side, dodging skeleton bones, and other objects, when they came to one portion of the mountains side. After a few minutes, Jeera started to realize that the sun was starting to shine a little brighter in the sky. _'The other villagers should be getting up about now.'_ She thought. She wondered how long it would take to get to this guys' tomb. Then the road just stopped. Jeera looked down over a cliff's edge to see a never-ending pit of fog. She looked around to see if there was some magical road that would help them get across, but there was none.

"This is a dead end. I thought you knew where we were going." Jeera crossed her arms.

"I do, and this is not a dead end. Look right here." She floated to the mountains wall.

Jeera looked a little closer. Then she saw it; a small little crag on the mountain wall. It ran all the way from where the land was to- well she couldn't see it because of the dense fog. She was actually expecting the three of them to actually scale the mountain! Well she wasn't as worried about Walter, he was used to climbing things, and Navis could just fit in her little pouch that she brought along. So basically she was screwed.

"Hurry up; we got to get up there!" Fauna gestured towards the top of the mountain.

"That's easy for you to say!" Jeera shouted. She started to regret coming here with every passing second.

)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

"Hey Keeko, have you seen Jeera anywhere? I've been to her home, but they said she wasn't there. And they said that Walter went off with her as well." Tak asked Keeko. They were _planning_ to play the ultimate prank on Blod and Bleeta, but they couldn't pull it off unless they had Jeera along to help out.

"Nope; I've looked over at the lake, looked through the forest, I even looked in Navis' little hut thing and didn't find her, or Navis for that matter." He replied.

"Wait, Navis isn't there either? Hmm, I wonder where they could have gone."

)()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()(

"Ugh, how much further is it?!" Jeera asked her Juju friend.

"We're almost there! I can see the temple doors!" Fauna replied as she flew up a little further.

"Huh, finally." Jeera grumbled to herself. Navis poked his head from the pouch for just a second to see how she was doing.

"I'm fine Navis; we just have a little bit more to go." She assured him.

Jeera finally reached the top of whatever she was supposed to get to the top of. When she climbed up, solid ground finally beneath her, she looked around and noticed that she was sitting on the balcony of a shrine. Three large pedestals stood in a triangle along the edges of it, two tall statues in between them.

"Okay, this looks kind of different." Jeera commented.

"Of course child of Pupanunu, you think that this is one of those feeble shrines of your home village? Created by the wisest of shamans to make sure no human should find this shrine unless chosen. Or if they have a _Juju_ by their side to help them out." The door said to them. Wait, a door just spoke to them?

"Oh, ooo, ooo!" Walter screeched as he climbed Jeera's shoulders in surprise.

"Okay, yeah that's kind of new too; I've never really had a door talk to me- unless you count those statues heads that are in front of Tak's house." She said as she walked to the door. She examined the door a bit closer: it had a face, and did look similar to the statue heads at Tak's house. "Wait, how did you know that I was from the Pupanunu village? And you are a door, How have you even been able to see what the other statue heads look like, or our Temples?"

"Why of course. We were made as guardians of our homes, though I have never seen any of my kind- because I'm a door of course, but we were all made by the same creators. One of them possessing great knowledge of the sacred magic's, or as you mortals acknowledge him as, 'Ranten the Wise'." The face blew at her as she tried to touch his nose. She tumbled backwards and almost fell off of the edge before Fauna helped her regain her footing. "He made sure to grant me with great knowledge as well before he passed." He said.

"Oh so you think that you can help us figure out something? How to become a chief?"

"Ho, ho, child, you cannot learn to be a chief from me just telling you. Not even if you read all of the books in this chamber, you will not be able to just know how to do it. You'll never learn something unless you actually do it yourself."

"Yeah, yeah, let's skip useless the details; now hurry up and give us the riddle so we can go inside and find a book." Fauna demanded.

"Humph, such an impatient Juju you are. Though I haven't seen many things in this world, I at least have some knowledge that Juju's were not this- err, pushy." The door replied.

"Oh yeah, well that must have been a LONG time ago when that happened dude. But we _would_ like to hurry passed this puzzle you have, please." Jeera told it, trying to be nice before it decided to blow her away again.

"Well since you've asked _so_ nicely." He replied in a sarcastic tone.

Suddenly the ground started to shake. Jeera's knees buckled from the shock and she fell lightly on the ground. She looked around half-expecting to see them flying through the air, since that's usually what happens when one of Tak's spells goes wrong and something flies in the air. But nothing seemed to have moved, except the fact that those statues weren't standing there with bows and arrows before…

And that they were wearing traditional warrior's armor.

"How about a riddle for the lightweights?" The door said to them.

"A riddle? Wow, I thought we were going to have to do some super hard jumping around, dodging fire type thing." Jeera said, relief in her voice.

"Oh no, this is much more simple than that. Just listen:

'_The Three-Way Shootout:_

_Three people – A, B and C - meet one day to have a shootout. They stand at a distance from each other so that no injury is possible besides through a shot._

_The three have differing experience with firearms:_

_A is an expert, able to shoot a man from this distance five times out of six.'_

The first statue stood in shooting position and shot an arrow at an unsuspecting bird passing by.

"Hmm, good thing we're in a graveyard." Fauna said.

"Shush, I'm trying to hear."

"_B is less experienced, hitting half the time._

_C is a beginner, never once ever shooting a target in her life."_

Jeera looked eagerly around. She didn't notice that there was a female statue here. But she didn't see one, even when she made a 360 turn in place to see her. It was Walter who had to point down to her feet to make her realize that _she_ was the 'her' the door was talking about. She saw a bow, similar to the ones the other statues held in their possession, and one arrow in a quiver, that looked like it could hold 25, just for her. The door had hit its mark; she _hadn't_ ever shot anything, or at anything, in her life. Not even with a slingshot.

'_The three people will take turns to fire at each other. Due to her poor aim, C will fire first, followed by B, followed by A. The duel will continue until only one _man_ survives._

_What should C do with her first shot to maximize her chance of survival?"_

The door finished and smiled a devious smile at her. Jeera looked to Walter, then to Fauna for some assistance. Navis looked up at her from his place in her pouch. With shaky hands she took him out and placed him on the ground a gently pushed him over to where Fauna and Walter were standing, very far away. You know, just in case they just happen to shoot her, she didn't want Navis to get accidentally- well you know.

She picked up her weapons and tried to position her feet the way she saw the first statue put his.

"You may begin." The door said plainly.

At that, the two statues stood at their ready positions, the points of their arrows pointing directly at Jeera. _'Oh scudge.' _She thought.

_Yeah, I'm trying to update my story faster. I hope you enjoy this chapter. The next one's going to be more action packed, promise. _

_~Heavenly-goddess2_


	7. Precious Time

Yeah, it's finally the next Chapter of this story. I'm sorry! I know this is way overdue; you all probably forgot about it by now though- I don't blame you. I really did try to make this a good chapter.

**Ch. 8 Precious time**

Jeera stood half petrified in place at the thought of getting shot at; or maybe killed.

"Come on Jeera kick ass!" Fauna chanted from the sidelines, "When we get through this we'll have an awesome time at my festival!"

"Oh yeah, that gets me _so_ motivated now!" Jeera replied in a sarcastic tone.

"By the way, there is one more thing I almost forgot to mention." The stone door interrupted. Stone from underneath her feet formed cuffs around her ankles and bound her in place. She almost fell over in shock.

"H-hey, what's all this for!?" Jeera cried. Oh that's just in case you try to run away during the trail- it wouldn't be fair that you are able to move while my loyal statues stay perfectly still- now stop fidgeting."

'_Stupid door wants me to die.'_ She declared in her mind. _'So, cool, all I have to do is hit one of these statue guys first so they won't hit me. Hmm, I guess I'll hit that statue "A" guy first so he won't totally maim me- sounds easy enough.' _She lifted her weapon once again to statue 'A'. _'Okay so when the village warriors do this thing they put their hands like this-', _She calculated.

"Oh come on now child, I know you don't have all day to do this." The door pointed out to her.

"Hey I'm _trying_ to concentrate here; it's not like I've ever done this before…" Jeera took a deep breath and closed her eyes to try and get calm. She opened one eye to try and get better aim on her target. She got her hands in the right positions (or what she thought were the right positions), reared back her hand, a few seconds away from getting a head-shot on the statue-

"Hurry up and shoot the damn thing already!" Fauna shouted, interrupting Jeera's concentration.

Shaken up from the unexpected outburst, Jeera dropped the arrow _and_ the bow, which dropped with a clattering noise on the ground. Jeera placed her fingers in her hair in frustration; now she was _really_ dead.

"Oh great job, you're just a pro at this." Fauna shouted at her in a sarcastic tone. Jeera shot a death glare in Fauna's direction. She ignored her for now and thought about what her next move would be. She really had to really be careful about her next move now. The statues' get to have a free shot off of her and she didn't even get a scratch off of either of them.

Now it's their turn and by the look of their arrow tips, she was totally doomed.

"Opponent 'C' has skipped her turn. Now opponent's 'A' and 'B' will duel." The door announced.

At those words the statues turned to face each other and took aim. This took Jeera by great surprise, as she was expecting them to take her out instead of each other. So you could actually skip your turns? And the other guys won't shoot at you and try to kill you? That's a pretty sweet deal…

Statue 'A' shot first, and hit his opponent in the side, which crumbled from the contact.

"Ouch, that looked like it hurt." Fauna chanted from the sidelines. Jeera rolled her eyes at her comment as Statue 'B' shot his arrow at his opponent- which slightly grazed his left ear.

"Ha-ha, that guy sucks almost as bad as Jeera!" Fauna laughed.

"Oh would you shut up already, I don't see _you _out here doing anything!" Jeera cried.

"Well if I _did_ have to do this stupid thing, I would be doing a way better job than all three of you losers put together!" Fauna retorted.

Jeera was about to say something back until she was cut off by the door, "If you wouldn't mind Opponent 'C' we have business to conduct, and I am very sure that you and both know of your time limit." He reminded her.

"Okay already, sheesh do you ever stop talking?" Jeera asked in an exasperated tone. She impatiently pulled out another arrow (which magically appeared in her quiver again) and shot it off to her side, where it fell into the oblivion down below them. Amazingly it was a short distance away.

"Opponent 'C' has once again chosen to skip her turn; Opponents 'A' and 'B' will once again face off." The door announced again.

"You know, Opponent 'C' _does_ have a name. This would be a little more enjoyable if you called us by our real names instead of make it seem like we're in a wrestling match."

"Fine, Raxes and Stunler will face off against each other. Are you happy now, Jeera?" The statue asked. "Now let's get this over with shall we?"

It continued like this for three more rounds. Jeera would purposely skip her turn (and also try to get some practice in) while newly named, Raxes and Stunler, would face-off against each other. Of course Raxes (formerly Statue 'A') defeated Stunler (formerly statue 'B'), but not without taking major damage to himself. Stunler was not very good at aiming, and his arrows usually took a nose dive before they reached its preferred target. Now Raxes was left with barely any part of his legs left.

"Ah, that's one opponent down, now Raxes and Jeera will face-off against one another." The door announced.

"You've said that a billion times already, what are you a Toko bird or something?" She complained as she once again raised her arrow for battle again. She gulped a little as the statue faced her once again, the point of his arrow still looking deadly. Okay, so with the little experience she had with her precious bow and arrow (the three rounds of shooting in the abyss) she guessed the best form of action. She couldn't really aim high, so she was like Stunler in that department; the arrow falling downward before reaching its mark.

So she had two choices of action: she could aim high and have the arrow hit the ground or she could keep at his legs until they gave out from under him and he crumbled to pieces. Obviously the second choice was better. So that's one problem solved, now all she has to worry about is Raxes taking shot off of her every round. But that seemed unavoidable, so she would just have to bear with the pain.

She took the shot. Amazingly the arrow actually hit its target, but with little satisfaction as it did little damage. It hit his ankle, which made a little pebble chipped off.

"You'll need to put a little more force behind your shots if plan to defeat a man made of stone. If he was made of bone and skin like you that probably would have done more damage." The door interjected.

"Thank you for the update, like I already didn't know that-" She cut off abruptly as she felt a sharp sting of pain in her right arm. She looked down to see that she had actually been shot by statues arrow as blood trickled down her arm. She almost felt woozy for a second. She'll have to get this guy soon before he mangled her where she stood.

She actually took the door's advice when she made this shot; the result a little more satisfying as a chunk of his ankle broke off, though she had little time to celebrate as it was Raxes' turn again. He aimed his arrow high like he was going to shoot the sun and fired- his arrow reaching its highest peak and making a u-turn in the air, came hurtling down to the top of Jeera's dome. Though her feet were bound by the cuffs around her ankles, she did her best to try and avoid the arrow, which was about to make a nice little hole in the top of her head. The arrow did miss her head, though it sliced a good portion of her shoulder and back.

"Ow that hurt! Is all of this really necessary, I mean, all I want to do is read a book!?" She whimpered as she grabbed her shoulder.

"Oh come now, don't be such a baby about it. And yes, all of this is necessary; you wouldn't believe the chaos a human can create with certain knowledge. You should know especially with that Tlaloc character and his band of hooligans running about-"

He was distracted by the sound of rock crumbling beside him; she had actually completed her task of defeating both of his stone archers. Out of surprise he released his hold on her ankles, making her fall to the ground in pain and relief.

"Finally it's over, I was about to fall asleep over here!" Fauna said as she got up from her place on the ground where she was sitting.

"Ah so you figured it out did you; distracting me from my grip on my archer to lower his defense, so it would be easier to knock him down." The door said impressed with her cunningness.

"What, the fact that _you_ were controlling the statues? That was easy to figure out; I mean statues don't move by themselves." She told the door. Fauna started applying her 'healing powers to Jeera's wounds. She felt a warming sensation and smelled sharp bittermint, which was quite calming. When she stopped and took her hands away, Jeera could feel the pain again but the scratches weren't bleeding anymore and weren't as visible.

"I didn't know that you had healing powers." Jeera rubbed her shoulder.

"Yeah, well a lot of people don't know a lot about me. Come on get up, you should be able to walk decently." Fauna helped Jeera up and over to the door, Walter and Navis close behind them.

"I have to say young Pupanunu child, I am impressed with your cunning skills. Though you are young you have shown great promise to become a great chief during this trail. You say you've never shot an arrow before, but you attained much skill in it in little more than an hour and a half." The door smiled.

"An hour," Jeera looked up to the sun's position. It was still high in the sky now, so she shouldn't have to worry about the time limit for a while.

"Well then let's hurry up, we don't have a lot of time to go by; we've played your game, now open up so we can see the book." Fauna rushed.

"Yes I am very quite aware of that young Juju-" The door opened up to them. "But before we part ways I would like to wish you luck on your journey. I do believe that you will become a much better chief than what your sister would have been. She wasn't even brave enough to do the challenge by her own. She made her little bodyguards do it for her. Tree out of five of them didn't make it." He said a little disappointedly.

"Yeah that sounds like something that Zaria would do- hey!" Jeera was cut off by Fauna who dragged her into the chamber interrupting their conversation.

"Come on blabber-mouth, if you keep on like that you'll never make it out of here in time before sunset, and you can't throw me a festival if you're dead." Fauna explained.

"Ow, okay you don't have to drag me; I'm still injured over here." Jeera whined as she shoved Fauna away. "Instead of being a jerk, you could try and be useful, use your juju powers or whatever and light this hallway, its dark in here."

"Excuse you; I'm a Juju _not_ a supply bag. You're lucky that you're supposed to be throwing me a festival of else I would've left you back there with those statue guys by yourself." Fauna emitted light energy through her hands.

"What?! You didn't do anything. I probably would have done better without yooooouu!" Jeera screamed as she fell downward into a pit.

"Oh come on! Can't you go five minutes without getting in trouble?" Fauna screamed at her from the top of the hole. Come on you two, we have to go save the damsel in distress." Fauna grabbed Walter and Navis and followed Jeera into the pit.

"Ha-ha, I _should_ have warned them about that." The door mumbled to him-self as he closed. He made sure to rebuild his archers again and went back to his usual position as guardian of the tomb. _This was an enjoyable encounter_, he thought to himself.

I know, this was a little short, but this chapter actually has two parts  
Hopefully that will be finished soon... Sorry for the wait again:


	8. Useless Book

"Whooooaaaaa!" Jeera screamed as she tumbled down the chute of the large pit. She landed with a hard thud onto the hard dusty floor.

"Oh man, why does this crap keep happening to me?" She whimpered as she rubbed her head. She sat up and looked at her surroundings. It was quite dim, small lamps of green flames hung on the shelves of what seemed to be a library, or at least one floor of it. She walked to the central area of the temple, and saw that, made up of many floors, the temple was only accessible by the staircase, which was actually very complex in its own right. The top of the temple was light, like there was a window up there. She looked down to see more, but it was too dark to see the bottom.

"Alright Princess, we are here to rescue you." Fauna placed Walter and Navis down as she arrived down the chute.

"Oh great, you come _after_ I fall flat on my face!"

"Stop being a baby and there's some dust on you." She pointed out. "Is this all this place is? Scrolls and dust, scrolls and dust; there's nothing else really here."

"Except for that book that we need; let's hurry up and find it so we can get out of here." Jeera started looking through the scrolls on the shelves. Walter and Navis helped as well.

"Uh, what are you doing? Fauna made a confused face.

"We're trying to find the book, duh. How about you try and help us?" She opened one of the scrolls.

"Why would a book be in a shelf filled with _scrolls_?"

"I don't know, isn't a book a special type of scroll?"

"So, basically what you're saying is that you _don't_ know what a _book_ looks like?" She asked. They looked at her with blank faces. "Okay then, you should follow me. No point in looking for something if you don't know what it looks like." Fauna started through the many shelves of the floor.

"Hey slow down will ya'; how are you going to find a book when you're going so fast?" Jeera questioned as she followed behind her.

Fauna skidded to a halt and turned to her, "Oh please, like it would be that easy to miss a book in a library full of scrolls-" She continued. "This should be super easy."

She continued to the second floor of the temple, by ways of flying, and when Jeera and the others caught up with her, she continued her questioning. "Are you sure? Have you even seen what a book looks like?"

"Yes I've seen what a book looks like, it looks like-" She turned in place to a path made by the shelves, leading to a light shining down on a pedestal with a book placed neatly upon it. "It looks like that." She grinned.

They cautiously approached the stairs, in case there were any traps waiting for them. When they reached the pedestal, Jeera looked at the book with awe.

"So this is what a book looks like…" Jeera placed her hand on it. "It's bigger than I expected. Why would the ancients make something as useless as this? A scroll would have made more sense than this crap." Jeera flipped through the pages, which were amazingly clean and free of dust.

"Well there are books in the Juju realm too, though not many. Must have been a new trend someone tried to start, but no one ever caught on. Too much work to make them I guess."

"Well do the books there have words on them? This thing is pretty much blank- there isn't anything on these pages!" Jeera looked to Fauna.

"What do you mean there's nothing on them, there are pictures right there on the parchment unless you're blind!" Fauna pointed to the book.

With a second glance, Jeera did see the images in the book' the main character looking very similar to her. The images grew brighter, more vivid the more she looked at them, until a bright light flashed from the book, overwhelming her senses as the images consumed her.

_White- everywhere she turned all she could see was the blankness; like the dense fog of the Burial Grounds after it rains. She felt suffocated, as if she was in a crowd of people, presumably dead ones, grabbing at her, trying to bring her down. So she ran, trying to find a way out of this mare._

_A wall; she looked upon the black object but could not see the top for the fog was so thick._

_Tired, she reached the peak of her destination, the ground covered in grey dust, like the ash of a forest after it has caught aflame. A figure stood before her, a woman, though beautiful, she definitely was not, for she looked as if she were withering away; her flesh falling from bone, eyes sunken in to her sockets, as if the burdens of the world have kept her awake for centuries. She came to her, bony hands outstretched; they closed around her throat as the woman gave her a creepy smile. She was suffocating, feeling light headed- she let out a scream as the bright light engulfed her once again…_

"Hey, HEY, wake up Jeera, come on stupid, this is no time for sleeping!" Fauna said urgently as she shook Jeera from her trance.

Jeera's' eyes opened, and she found herself trembling on the dusty floor.

"What the heck was that about, you just pass out after you look in a book? We'll have to keep you away from books or something…" Fauna closed the book, in case it still had weird effects on Jeera. "I know you've never seen a one before but it's not that serious."

"So you _didn't_ just see that whole scene, about a woman and the white fog-"

"No I didn't see anything like that, I saw a flash and the next thing I knew you were on the ground like something attacked you."

The Book must have had the same effect on Walter too; who was screeching (as usual) And Navis was shivering in the corner.

"So we find the book and it doesn't tell us anything, it leaves us scared to death instead. This was basically a huge waste of time!" Jeera screamed, infuriated. Her scream echoed throughout the library, traveling up the many levels of floors. Something on the top of those floors heard this, awakened by the loud shout, and it sounded angry. "What was that?" Jeera asked in a trembling voice.

"Something you really don't want to find us, let's just quietly find a hiding place and stay _quiet_." She emphasized. The four found a place between two shelves were it was darkest; hopefully whatever is coming will not see them.

Jeera listened for the creature as it traveled down the temple floors. She could hear its breathing as it appeared on their floor; it made its way to the podium where the book was. In the light, she could see the figure of a wolf, though it had a strange aura of shadow surrounding it as though they clung to it. It noticed the book was not in its original state, as before it was closed- it knew someone was here. It swiftly made its way to the staircase and jump down, on its search for the intruders.

"What the heck was _that_ thing?" Jeera whispered to Fauna as soon as she thought it was safe.

"They call that a shadowvine watcher. Long ago shamans used to summon them to protect their most valuable objects of the Juju's from thieves. On the other hand, sometimes, they use them to help them in battles. There must be something pretty important up there if one of them is here." Fauna quietly walked to the staircase.

"And you are going where?" Jeera questioned her.

"Duh, didn't you just here me? That thing is guarding something big! It's probably better than that good for nothing book we came for. You did all of that crap back there, you really want to leave here empty handed? We are going to figure out what's up there."

Jeera was torn. She didn't want an encounter at all with the beast, but like Fauna said, it could be something important up there, and curiosity was getting the better of her. "Fine let's go then." She followed Fauna; Winsor and Navis followed after her.

They carefully made their way up the many stairs, trying not to make any noise to attract the shadowvine in any way. Jeera gulped as she looked to the top of the temple and saw many skeletons hanging from the walls and ceiling, the ones who didn't make it back.

"Okay, I seriously have a bad feeling about this."

"Oh shut up, if you didn't want to be chief we wouldn't have to worry about 'bad feelings' right?"

They continued up the staircase (amazingly there was more stair in here than on would have guessed) noticing that it was getting lighter the more they climbed, like there was an opening at the top or something of that.

"So this is the top of it?" Jeera asked her as they stepped off the staircase. It was a room, not as big as the massive library floors below it, but pretty comfortable for a few shelves of scrolls and even some filled with books. There were no lamps in here, but instead there were small windows, probably where the light they saw earlier was coming from. In the middle of the room was a small table, its' legs carved with the face of the Piukutu pig the top smoothly polished and once again free from any dust. However, it did have an unusual looking staff sitting atop it. It had beautiful designs of clouds and swirls on its length, with a beautiful green jewel at the top surrounded by three gold rings.

"Hey look at this," Jeera picked up the staff and examined it. "Wonder what this is doing here. It looks pretty special to be in a place like this-" She swung it around, making the amber beads at the bottom click together in rhythm.

"Okay. Stop fooling around and get to researching. That last book was a total dud, but with these, we should be able to get some useful information. Wait, what information are we looking for exactly?"

"We just need information on what to do next for the chief-hood rituals. Look for something that has anything to do with 'chief' in the title. You guys help too." Jeera said as she placed a book on the floor.

The search began; books piled along the floor as time passed and the four read their contents.

All the while a small spider crawled from outside through the window and slowly made its way along the many books and just happened to crawl onto Walter's foot.

The monkey let out a loud screech; he hoped about loudly a destructively, knocking down the books and scrolls off the shelves and table. Jeera and Fauna had to double- team him to get him quiet, but by then the damage was already done; the shadowvine had heard them and it was on its way to the top floor to punish the intruders there.

It shot through the hole in the floor that led to the stairs and charged for the gang. Fauna floated to the ceiling while Jeera jumped towards the table, knocking the staff down and landing on the floor beside her. Even though they managed to dodge that attack, the beast was quick and charged at Jeera.

"Watch it!" Fauna shouted as she shot a blast at the creature knocking it off course from its target. Jeera quickly crawled from her place and grabbed the staff on the other side of the table, wedged between the chair and the shelf that had fallen during the struggle.

"What do you think you're doing?! Get out of there before that thing kills you! A useless staff isn't going to help you!"

Jeera did not reply as she grabbed the staff. Right before the creature was able to tackle her, she held the staff to the beast, which caused a light to emit from the jewel. The shadowvine howled in pain, and in irritation, swatted at Jeera, causing her to fall through the gap in the floor leading to the stairs.

"Fuck, Jeera!" Fauna cried as she tried to go after her, but the shadowvine had a different plan and stepped into her way, snarling its teeth threateningly. "Oh, so you wanna' pick a fight with me? Sure, it's your funeral buddy-" Fauna smirked at it.

"Ahhhhhh!" Jeera screamed as she fell through the many levels of floors and stairs of the temple. If the drop was not so deep, she possibly could deal with it, but she could fell the popping in her ears from the speed of her drop.

"Ooooh-ooh-aah!" She could hear Walters' scream echo through the temple. He was swinging down the ropes that hung from the ceilings and wall, and was quickly making his way to Jeera, knocking off some of the bones hanging from them as well. When he was close, enough he reached for her hand, but missed as she was falling too fast for him. He tried again, this time Navis climbed from his back into his hand, and with his help, he was able to catch her shirt with his teeth.

"Good boy Navis!" Jeera panted as she patted him on his head. Now all she had to do was find a way to solid ground and a way out of this place-

"Get off!" Jeera heard Fauna scream from above her. She looked up to see Fauna and the shadowvine going at it through the temple. Fauna grabbed its fur and threw it at the floor below her, causing the floor to break from the impact and down upon the three hanging there. Navis lost his grip on Jeera and once again, she started to fall, except this time, there was no one to catch her.

She fell to the temple floor where the rest of the bones of the non-survivors laid. She landed with a crash when and hit her head on one of the many skulls that were down there and passed out. Walter and Navis followed her. When they reached her, they tried their best to wake her, though it was no use, she was out cold. Above them, Fauna still wrestled with the beast; she had it weakened, until she found herself tangled in the ropes that hung around. The beast took its chance and tackled her into the wall behind her, causing more rubble to fall to the bottom. Walter and Navis did their best to protect Jeera from the falling stones, but the wreckage caused an avalanche effect, making the bones fall into a pit in the middle of the floor.

"Damn it!" Fauna cried as she witnessed the events occur below. She kicked the shadowvine away from her and burned the ropes that tangled her and rushed toward the three. She reached into se sea of moving bones and grabbed Jeera by the waist, Walter and Navis grabbing onto her as she flew into the air. She quickly looked around for an opening, not wanting to take her chances above on the top floor with the windows; she found one in the wall, though it looked like a tight fit. She took it anyway and hoped that the shadowvine could not fit, but the creature was determined and crashed into the hole, its head the only thing fitting. It clawed at the hole, managing to dig at the rocks and making the space bigger.

"Oh come on, don't you ever give up? Come on you guys, I need a lot of help getting this girl trough here." Walter and Navis squeezed past her and grabbed Jeera as well. She crawled through the small tunnel, trying to keep good distance between her and the shadowvine and a good grip on Jeera. _'Come on, how long is this damn tunnel…'_ she thought to herself when she saw a small glimpse of light ahead of her coming from a crack blocking her from the outside.

"Alright, let's get out of here." She said as she pushed the wall. It did not budge an inch. "Oh come on you stupid wall, you're already cracked." She punched it. She could hear the shadowvine coming from behind them, so she had to work fast. She punched, kicked, and clawed at the wall, but it still would not move, and the beast was getting closer still.

"Fuck, come on you stupid wall!" She shot a blast at it, which made the wall crack even more, but the beast was already there- she could feel its breathing on her neck. The shadowvine saw its chance to attack and frantically started making its way to them, which made Walter and Navis help as well by clawing at the wall. Nevertheless, the beast charged, the force causing the wall to break, and the four fell out the side of the mountain (which was also the temple) and towards the ground. They landed roughly; Jeera landing in a puddle of water woke up from her intermission and sat up slowly.

"Oh so _now_ you get up _after_ we escape from the evil shadow creature, we could have used your help while we were saving your life you know." Fauna cracked her neck.

"Sorry, I just fell three hundred feet from the top floor of a temple, how could I be so selfish." Jeera replied hazily as she reached for her staff- wait, what was a staff doing here?

Jeera had little time to ponder as Navis started to pull her skirt and Walter Pointed to the sky. The sun was just beginning to set behind the mummy tombs.

"Oh my goodness, we have to go now!" Jeera, now alert, grabbed Navis, put him in her pouch, and started to run. "Crap, why didn't you warn us it was this late?!" Jeera screamed at Fauna.

"Just blame everything on the Juju why don't you; if you weren't sleeping the entire time, we could have gotten out faster! Actually now that I think about it…" Fauna formed into the little light ball and floated to the sky.

"Hey, you're just going to leave us like this!" Jeera shouted after her, she got no response. "Note to self, never trust a juju." She turned around and started to run again. Something grabbed at her ankles from behind. She turned and kicked it away to see that it was a nergal, a whole pack of them had actually came out from their hiding places. 'They must come out when the darkness does' Jeera thought. There were too many to fight at once, but it would not matter anyway- the sun was setting now, and in a few seconds nergals would be the least of Jeera's problem. She heard the howling, the moans of the undead, rising from their resting places to seize the unlucky traveler who dared to linger after sunset.

They grabbed at her ankles, moving up to her waist, threatening to take her under the ground along with them. "Let go of me!" she cried. She was being bombarded by both nergals and undead, causing her to fall to the ground with a hard thud. She could see Navis and Walter through the mess trying to get to her, but she knew they would be unsuccessful; they were outnumbered.

"Jeera!" She heard someone call her name. A giant blast exploded, knocking the bodies of nergals and undead away from Jeera.

"Jeera are you alright?" She heard Taks voice.

She opened her eyes and tightly embraced him. "Oh Tak," she cried, "How did you find me? How did you know I was even here?"

"Well I saw this very detailed diagram on your bed", Tak looked at her, "Me and Keeko have been looking for you all day! Why in the world are you here?"

"Well I was looking for something and- oh!" She was cut off.

"Come on blabber mouth, you _can't_ tell him that!" Fauna shouted at her as she grabbed her waist.

"Fauna stop- put me down!"

"Fauna, what are you doing? Let her go!" He tried to reach for Jeera, but the undead bodies, which were re-spawning, grabbed him and more nergals were on their way to the scene as Fauna was flying away with Jeera.

"Stop, we have to go back for them!" Jeera was fighting with Fauna to out her down.

"Ow stop before I drop you! We have to go now and I'm not going back for him." Fauna slung Jeera over her shoulder as she opened a portal to the Juju realm.

Jeera could barely see Tak, Navis, and Walter through the mayhem on the ground through the never-ending sea of bodies.

"Tak, Tak!" Jeera whimpered as she was transported to the Juju realm.

I really must apologize for the super late update. I promise that the next chapter will not take so long to update.

Please forgive me!


	9. Own your own

Fauna and Jeera both flopped on the ground after being teleported to the spirit world.

"Ouch, for a 'princess' you really do weigh a ton you know that?" Fauna complained as she rubbed her shoulders. She stood up and looked around; lots of fog and floating islands, just as boring as when she came here that last time. They teleported a little farther than she was expecting, they'll have to walk a couple of miles from here-

"Then you shouldn't have come and got me you jerk!" Jeera tackled her to the ground, "How could you just leave Tak and the others behind?! They could… be in trouble!"

"Get off!" Fauna shoved Jeera away, "Get over it! You're worried about Tak being in trouble, but what about us? Weren't we in trouble when that shadowvine attacked us? Were you not in trouble when the nerbals and the zombies surrounded you? Tak will be fine without you getting in his way, and the nerbals and zombies don't attack animals, so Navis and Walter will be fine!" She stood up and brushed herself off, "You're the one who needs to stay focused here, and we're halfway through this thing! If we turn around now we'll both get in trouble, because I'm supposed to be grounded, and you aren't even supposed to know where that Tomb of Ranten place was to do this stupid ritual!"

"Well, we could have made it through the graveyard and then come here."

"What, so you could finish having a little chat with Tak-ky? You were about to blab the whole plan to him, the he would have told Jibolba who would have told your dad, who would have told my mom, and that would not be a pretty sight for anyone."

"Then why would you go through so much trouble for me? Just so you can have your own festival?"

Well if Flora get's o have her own festival so should I! I'm the oldest; they always treat her better than me!" Fauna stomped her foot on the ground.

Oh, Jeera could see where this whole thing was going. The whole sibling rivalry thing- yeah she knew the deal.

She offered Jeera a hand, who accepted it. "Anyways, you're the one who needs to stay focused here so we can finish this. Even if we do get in trouble for this, we can at least have something to show for all of this when you become chief." She smirked at Jeera.

Jeera pondered this as Fauna went ahead. Jeera did not realize that Fauna actually had a purpose for helping her (well a better one anyways, having your own festival was a shallow reason in her opinion), even though it was out of jealousy. Jeera had her reasons as well, so she guesses that she had other people relying on her as well.

"So, where exactly are we?"

"We are in the spirit world, not exactly where I wanted to end up in thanks to your whining; we're about a couple of miles from our destination."

"You can't just teleport us to that place?"

"I would, but the only places you can teleport in the Spirit world is in and out. Anything other than that could cause serious problems here, and I'm not trying to have an army of ghosts and things coming after me, so from here, we walk."

"We walk to where?"

"Oh geeze, do I have to explain everything? To the Door of Divenge, the final location of the Chief rituals- I read it in one of those books in the library and I knew exactly where to go. My mom took me and my sister there once before, told us never to enter that door for some reason or another. It's not that hard to spot."

Jeera and fauna made their way along the spirit world, maneuvering through broken pathways, puzzles, and mazes throughout the realm. "If your mom brought you here before, why don't you know a shortcut around these traps?"

"I told you, it was a long time ago, I don't remember much! I didn't even know how to use magic back then-" She pointed ahead, "Were almost there anyways, I can see the arches from here." The pair made to a long path of steps, going across many floating platforms that had a statue of what seemed to be chieftains on them. As they passed by them, Jeera could point out a couple of the ones from certain tribes. There was one of the Swollen River Tribe, the way his markings stood out from his features, like that jerk Zogsnob's, and the like Tina-tina. She even saw a chief from the Pupununu tribe, his stomach markings looked just like the ones her father had, though not as big. Maybe all of the chiefs had to get the same ones of something…

"Here's the place." Fauna stopped. When Jeera caught up, she almost fell backwards trying to look at the top of the thing. How did she not see _this_ from back there? She must have been paying way too much attention to those statues.

"What do we do now, knock?"

Fauna touched the markings on the edges of the doorway, "Wait, I'm trying to figure out the incantation to this thing. I can read a little bit of this writing, but my ancient world reading is a little rusty." She said before she stepped back from the object. "Hopefully my magic will be strong enough to open it by myself." She applied hand movements as she chanted what Jeera could only make out as gibberish. She watched amazed as Magic started flowing around Fauna, how the statues stared to glow where their markings were and the door along with them. They started to swirl and merge together in a sickingly wavy motion that made Jeera queasy to watch the whole thing as they formed what looked like a giant key. The door made a loud *clunk as it unlocked itself. The door opened only a few six inches before it stopped and Fauna fell to the ground, obviously worn out from the whole ordeal.

"Who could have though it could take this much work opening a door." Fauna panted a she shakily stood up again.

"You okay?"

"I'll be fine, just need to take a break from using magic for a few minutes and I'll be good as new."

Jeera looked at the door and from what she could tell; the door looked pretty bleak on the other side of it. She knew _something_ weird was going to happen as soon as she stepped through it, but you find stranger things happening in the Pupanunu village. "I'll go in first."

"Oh, getting brave are we?" Fauna said as she placed her hand on Jeera's shoulder. With confidence, Jeera walked through the small openings of the doors and just like that, she was through' but not without noticing that Fauna's hand was missing from her shoulder.

"What's wrong, you scared or-" She turned around, but did not see Fauna there. Actually, she could not see the spirit world either, and the door was quickly fading away by the second. "Wait!" She shouted aloud.

'_There is no waiting here young Pupanunu; you have made it this far, come find me a take you final test. Let us see if you a truly ready to take the role of a chief.' _She heard a mysterious voice echo throughout the place.

"Where? I can't even see in here!" she called out. She heard no reply and sighed. Okay, this was _definitely_ not what she was expecting.

From this point on it really looked like she was going to have to do this on her own. That would not be so bad right? All she had to do was find… something. Maybe this was not going to be so easy then.

Okay, SUPER late update I know! This chapter is actually shorter than it really is (right on my paper I wrote down it is _much_ longer than this) but I will post the rest as a different chapter I suppose. Sorry, for those I kept waiting for so long!


	10. Please, Explain

_**Yeah, still do not own Tak and the Power of Juju, but I do own the realm this chapter takes place in and the Juju who rules it- Illusion Juju.**_

She supposed that going straightforward would be her best choice at this point. It wasn't like she knew her way around this place, and really, she couldn't even see her hand in front of her face with this thick fog hanging around. As she walked, she tried to shake off the weird feeling that something was watching her. She doubted that she was; nothing could possibly live here, there was nothing to live off. Just barren land; there weren't even any trees here-

"Ow!" Jeera shouted when she ran into a tree. "Correction, there aren't any _living_ trees around here." She said aloud to herself. She actually found many things as she traveled aimlessly through the fog. She saw some bones of a really, really, big creature somewhere, and she saw some rocks. Yeah, this place was dead, she was bored, and she could not leave until she found something. What was she looking for again…?

"Who's there?!" Jeera heard her echo through the fog.

Of course, nothing replied back, not that she was expecting it to answer her, if it was even there or if it was just her imagination. She shrugged it off for now and continued her walk through the dense fog. Until she was interrupted by something small and violent jumping in her hair!

"Ah, get off of me!" She screamed at the thing.

"Yeah get her Needles! I got her feet!" She heard something say.

Her feet? As she struggled with the creature in her hair, she also tried to focus on her feet, kicking so whatever said that last sentence couldn't do whatever it was planning. She realized a little too late that the creature had already tied a rope around her feet as she tumbled onto the ground. The two creatures had more rope with them and continued to tie Jeera up until she was not able to move at all.

"Very good my minions," She heard another voice say. She looked up to see a man, stick thin and a scraggly beard standing over her. She had never seen this man before, so he could not have been the Pupanunu village.

"Yeah boss we did exactly what you told us, get the girl and tie her up." She looked over to the being that said that and recognized him as Pins, the little voodoo doll that Tlaloc had following him around, and Needles the skinnier one too.

"Tlaloc, what are you doing here?!" she screamed at the man.

The man laughed at her, "Tlaloc? Do I really resemble my former mentor that closely? No child, you do not know who I am, but I know who you are, and your little friends Tak and Keeko too. I have been watching you and your little deeds recently and I must say; I am not impressed. And this little stunt you're trying to pull is going to cost you."

"Cost me? How do I owe you anything! I don't even know you, and even though you say you know me, I doubt that. If you're not Tlaloc, then who are you, and why are you here? This is for the future Chiefs of the Pupanunu village!"

The man paused before he pulled out an orb, about the size of both of Jeer's hands together, out. He kneeled down low enough for Jeera to see it clearly, before he dusted some powder over it, which made Jeera sneeze. An image formed in it, one that Jeera recognized as the night that her dad had gotten hurt from that freak lightning storm.

"Ah, so you remember this night?" He replied, "Yes, not exactly as I had planned out; your father wasn't supposed to live through that, but the results were still effective. He gave up his place as the Chief to your sister, just as I planned." He said smugly.

Jeera understood _this_ was this reason the Pupanunu village almost met its demise that night. "That was _you? _ What is your problem! Why would you attack a harmless tribe for no reason!?

"That shall be explained in this next part." He waved his hand in front of the orb and a new scene appeared. It was Zaria, and she apparently was dreaming, since she seemed to be in an unusually pink and fluffy version of the Pupanunu village. All of a sudden, there was a rip in the world, and out stepped a cleaner and younger version of the man holding the orb in front of her. She saw them argue, the man snatched the crown from Zaria's head and Zaria called the guards on him, but he just blasted them away with his magic. "What you are seeing now is how I managed to convince your sister of 'setting aside' her role of becoming the next chief of the village. It actually was not very hard to do so; the poor girl frightens so easily, especially when it comes to her beauty. She was lucky it was a dream, or else her face would have stayed like that forever if I wanted it to."

Jeera looked at the orb again and saw a horribly deformed version of Zaria, crying while looking at her in the mirror as the man left the world and closed the hole in the dream back again.

"You threatened to make her ugly so she wouldn't want to become chief?" Jeera asked him.

"No, I actually told her that the Juju would become jealous of her beauty and make her ugly forever if she were to become chief. I didn't allow her to wake up, so she was stuck in that nightmare until you came and poured water over her."

Well, that actually explains why Zaria was in such a bad mood the whole day after that. "So why are you doing this? Do you have something against my dad, or the village? Why are you hurting innocent people who don't even know you!?"

"Oh Jeera, it's nothing personal against you or your family, just a score I have to settle with an old acquaintance of mine, even though _you_ are the reason why I have been in this realm for all of these years."

"Years? The attack you planned was only three days ago, and Zaria gave up her role only two days ago."

"Yes, but you decided that you were going to try and take the crown yesterday, the day I took the rituals and came into this realm. If there are no heirs that are willing to take the crown to rule, then it is possible for anyone to take the rituals to become the next chief of the village. When you made the decision to take the rituals yourself, that rule was voided, and I was never able to get out of this realm. Apparently the Juju of this realm looked down upon my presence and cast a spell, making it seem like years to the ones inside this realm, though it has only been hours in the real world."

"Then you shouldn't have tried to become Chief in the first place! It's not yours to mess with and manipulate! Why do you want to become chief of our village anyways, you've never even lived there!"

"That shall be a story for another day when I become chief of the Pupanunu's. One you will not be able to hear, since you won't be living for much longer anyhow." He said that last part with a grunt as he picked up a large rock and held it up in the air.

Oh great, another person is trying to kill her again. Is this another part of the test and someone's going to save her? She is sure no other Chefturu's (or future chiefs) had never had to go through something like this during their rituals.

Tak Panted as he toppled over onto the lift. Walter quickly hopped onto the lever that would take them onto the upper level and out of the Burial Grounds.

"Navis- how you holdin' up?" Tak spotted the little gretch ravaging a severed undead arm.

"I need to talk to Jibolba. I need to figure out what is going on here, and you two-" He pointed at them, "are going with me, since you both know what's happening better than I do and you're going to tell us _everything_!"

Navis and Walter shared nervous glances at each other as the lift came to a stop. Before they whet to Tak's hut they stopped by a sleeping Keeko, who was snoring quite loudly on a large boulder in front of the cave.

Tak threw a pebble at his head, "Ow! Do you people have no sense of time?"

"Unfortunately I do, and we don't have enough of it to be messing around! We have issues that need to be solved now, so come on!"

"Really, right now? I really need to get some shut-eye man; that run in with the white-tailed monkey pack you made angry really took me out."

"Just come on!" Tak grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him off the rock.

"Ow man, no need to be so rough." Keeko reluctantly followed Tak's lead as he rubbed his now sore head.

"Tak, w-what are you doing up so late? Do you have any idea what time of night it is?" Jibolba rubbed his eyes as he tried to adjust his eyes to the visitors in his house.

"Yes, but we have a problem, something serious is going on with Jeera, and it has something to do with the Burial Grounds and Fauna."

"Fauna? That girl is always causing some kind of trouble." Jibolba rubbed his chin.

"These two were there with her, they know the whole story." Keeko pushed the guilty party to the front.

"Well, tell me what you got." Jibolba sat in a nearby stool. He could tell that this was going to be a long night.

A couple of hours of animal translations later, Jibolba finally arrived to a point where he understood what Jeera was doing, or attempting to do. "I have a theory of what's going on- and where those two might have gone." He stood up and reached for some scrolls on the shelves.

"Really! Where?" Tak questioned.

"Well if my guess is correct, then we're going to have to go to the Chief with this." He grabbed the last scrolls he needed and headed for the door "Everything will be explained when we get to the Chief's house. Tak and Keeko shared glances at each other before they followed along, as well as Navis and Walter.

"Did you find her? Where is my little girl?!" The Chief asked, hope in his voice.

"Well Chief, I have a theory..." He unraveled one of the scrolls on the floor. "You know what this map is of, don't you?"

"The Burial Grounds, yeah." Tak replied.

"Well from what Navis and Walter explained, I'd guess that you came to this tomb here, right?" He pointed to a dark mound on the map. Walter agreed with his usual screeching way.

"The Tomb of Ranten? There is no possible way that Jeera could have gone there- she is frightened of the Burial Grounds, and she wouldn't even know where to find that tomb" The Chief figured.

"I was thinking too, but I saw her with my own eyes as she was getting jumped by nergals and zombies-"

"She was there after dark!? Oh no, not my precious daughter!"

"She's fine now I guess; Fauna came and took her somewhere while I had to fight the creatures of the night off."

"Okay, so we know where she was, but why? Why would she go there, and where is she now?"

"Ah, another part of my theory-" Jibolba started, " We know that the pilgrimage to Ranten's Tomb is for one thing - to find the next step to finishing the 'Chief's Bearing' rituals."

"The thing that tells who the next chief of the Pupanunu Village is." Keeko finished.

"That's right, only the next heirs or the worthiest of the village of the Pupanunu's are able to find the entrance into the temple." The Chief said.

"Well guessing from these two's stories, it looks like they made it past the tomb, and are on to the next step."

"Then what could they be doing now, only those with the Aktum keys passed down from chief to heir can finish the next stage." Said the Cheif.

"-Or if they have a very sneaky Juju who is willing to use magic to help them." Jibolba stated.

"What, NO! We cannot allow her to go there, we must fetch her! I will not allow my precious daughter to go through that!"

Every looked over to the stairs where they heard a scoff. It was Zaria, and she did not look in a very nice mood. "You won't allow her to go, but you would force _me_ to go!?" She screamed.

"Zaria, you are the next in line, it is your _duty_ to become the next chief! I thought you would have been happy to go through the rituals and become chief, you've wanted to be one your whole life!"

"Well, I'm not going to risk my neck to some Juju for these ugly people!" Zaria raced back up the stairs.

"Zaria, you come back here!" The Chief followed his daughter.

"So what is the big deal with these rituals anyway?" Tak asked Jibolba.

Jibolba sighed as he sat down on the floor, "I've accompanied many future chiefs through this ritual. Many people were afraid of the tests, mostly because they did not know what to expect. When I took the chief through the tests, he was quite young, and he actually was not supposed to be the one taking the tests because of his age. I am not sure what happened for the final test, since I was not able to go with him, but he was not a pretty sight when he returned to the village. I'm sure he told Zaria this and that's what caused her to back out of the whole thing."

"So she was afraid of getting hurt? It's not like it would be the first time for her, the Pupanunu's are used to pain by now- right Tak?" Keeko laughed.

"Well, it's not only that, there is a certain age limit you're supposed to be. There is a Juju who presides over the rituals, and she is very... delicate about these things. It is forbidden for a child to participate in the rituals for many reasons. The most obvious fact is that they are too young! Could you imagine a seven year old ruling a village? It is not impossible, but very unlikely to happen- but back to my point: depending on the age of the participant, the Juju will be more or less hard on you. I guess she has a thing against the young or something like that. That is why the Chief's test was so difficult; if he would have waited a few more years it probably would have been simpler..."

"How old was he when he took the test?"

"Eh, I guess he was about 18 or 19."

"And Zaria is 18. What age exactly does the Juju consider to be a child?" Tak asked. He was getting a bad feeling about this whole thing.

"I suppose anything less than twenty years. And judging from Jeera's age, I'm not sure if she'll make it..." Jibolba said the last part in a small voice.

"What?!" Tak stood up. "What do you mean, '_won't make it_'? You don't think the Juju would actually _hurt_ her?"

"Well I'm not sure, Jeera is so young- no heir who has ever tried the rituals had ever been so young!" Jibolba put his hands up defensively.

At that point, however, Tak stopped listening and had run out of the Chief's house into the village air. He had to save Jeera, and he had to do it fast before something happened to her wherever she was.

"Tak wait!" He heard Jibolba following him. "You can't go with her! You can't help her now if she has already started the test!"

"Oh yeah, and why not! Jeera could get hurt- or worse; what are we supposed to do then if I can't help her!"

"We wait," They looked over to the chief, who sadly looked down at the ground. "What happens to Jeera, we cannot control now. We shall wait and see what happens as the days go by. If the worst has come- we shall know about it..." The chief sadly walked to the edge of the Jungle, probably going to take a walk to clear his mind. Tak let out a frustrated growl.

"Tak, I know you have feelings for this girl that could make you anxious, but you have to consider the consequences of you actions if you were to go through with them. If you go now, not only would Jeera be in trouble, but also so would you! The Juju of the test is very strict about these things, and even though you have the power of Juju on your side, you are still human- well half-human anyway. We just have to be patient and see how things play out. Hopefully they will be in Jeera's favor." Jibolba said before he went back into the Chief's house.

Tak just stood in the middle of the village. Dawn was coming, but he did not feel tired at all after a sleepless night. He just could not grasp the fact that all of this was even happening. He just gets back from two years of being away and this happens? He really should not be surprised though. It is the Pupanunu village after all. Crazier things have happened before this. Nevertheless, he was a shaman with the power of Juju! He can actually do something about this!

A hand on his shoulder interrupted his thoughts and he turned to see Keeko standing beside him. "Hey, you wanna' take a trip to the Juju realm?" He asked him.

Keeko just grinned and he knew that his answer was 'yes'. He would show Jibolba what he could and could not do. He did not train in the Juju realm for nothing. _'Wait... what did Jibolba mean by 'feelings for this girl' anyways?' _Tak thought before he teleported to the Juju realm.

_**Yes, more of this story. I'm not done with it yet, and there will be more to come. It has been a long time since I first submitted it, and I do not have and ending for this. Maybe you can help me! You can come up with ideas for future chapters and help me out a little. Just message me if you want, and I will try to get the next chapter up while you do.**_


	11. A fighting Chance

Update- late update… Also a pretty short one as well. Just means a faster update for later though. I do not think anyone is even interested in this story anymore- or even TATPOJ for that matter. Oh well…  
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**A fighting chance**

Jeera thought she was done for, until she felt a strong wind blow around her. Apparently, the rock-wielder felt it as well, and almost toppled over with the weight of the rock above his head.

"What is this? There has never been a wind of any sort before in this realm!" He shouted in surprise as he struggled to stay upright.

"Mortals, what would ones such as yourselves be doing in a place such as this?"

Jeera could not help but cringe at the horrible sounding voice that spoke aloud. It was scratchy and hoarse, as if the person desperately needed a drink of water.

When the dust (and fog) settled and Jeera was able to open her eyes, she saw a tall figure standing before her and the would-be chief. She realized that this must be the Juju of this realm, though her appearance was not what she was expecting. The figures looked as if it were dead- a zombie rather than a powerful Juju. Her skin was falling from her bones, her hair dry and disheveled, and her eyes were sunken in- staring blankly into some unknown void, that Jeera would hate to see for herself. How _this_ thing could be considered a juju, she did not understand. The man beside her was displeased as well.

So _you_ are the almighty Juju that has cursed me upon this realm." The man dropped the rock dangerously close to Jeera's head as he went to stand up to the juju.

"You've kept me here for what- five years, and when this pathetic excuse for a girl shows up, you come to her like some savior!" He laughed mockingly.

The Juju made no move if she had heard him, but the subtle movement of her eyes told Jeera that she was looking at the man. She made what barley looked like a smile, "Sad shaman, you come looking to fulfill a dream that would become other's nightmares in the future with such evil ambition. I would never let one as you have any rank among a village."

The shaman scoffed, an amused smile on his face, "How dare you! _I_ am one of the greatest shaman's in all of the Five Rivers Area! I am even better than that brainless child you Juju's chose to wield the Power of Juju! I deserve more than what you have decided to place in my destiny!" The man's body glowed as he readied a spell towards the Juju. With a clasp of his hands, a giant ball of fire and energy emitted from the air and bolted towards the motionless Juju.

Jeera jolted, but she was powerless to do anything in her tied state. Even if she was free, what could she do against magical powers anyways?

As she watched helplessly from her place on the ground, the juju did nothing, and soon enough, the fireball of magic had become that as well. All was still as nothing happened in the timeless void. Where did the giant ball of flame just go? First, it was heading full blast towards the quite ugly Juju, and then it was gone in a split second. Jeera was the first to voice her concern,

"What the heck just happened here?" She screamed in confusion, "If you could make that thing disappear in mid-air then could you at least untie me from these ropes? They're really starting to bug me."

The Juju made no movements as she replied, "Actually my child, I think it would be safer if you stayed in your current state, it keeps you from getting in the way." The juju minutely changed her stance from her leaning position to one with a straighter posture, which made the Shaman man a little worried for his own life. If this Juju could stop a powerful attack as that whilst doing nothing, what could she do when she was actually trying to hurt him? He stepped back a few inches as he tried to consider his options. He could just try to run away, for one thing. However, this was the Juju's realm- no matter how much he tried to run he would not be able to escape this wrath. Moreover, fighting back was not possible either because once again, this was her realm; she controlled all here, and he was helpless as he was surrounded in a bright blue light. Little wisps of white flew across his vision as her body lifted off the ground, limbs bound by some invisible force that strangled him and clouded the rest of his senses.

He was going to face the same fate his earlier fireball spell had endured if did not something fast. No, he would not be done away with like this- he had worked too hard, been through so much training to get to point. He was not going to fail now. He chanted his own incantation in his mind to counteract the effects of this spell the Juju was casting on him. He knew not the result of this action, but in the end, he would manage to survive this. He always had done so entire life. Hard lessons learned from his mentor and most hated enemy Tlaloc.

Jeera watched in utter shock as blue light and white wisps fluttered around the man for a minute before he disappeared completely from sight. Jeera could help but feel a bit sorry for the man. Where did the Juju put him? Well if he was dead, then there was no point in worrying about all of that in the first place.

The Juju turned her hollow gaze to the Pupanunu child still bound on the ground before.

"Now what, young Pupanunu, shall I ever do about you?"

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This was actually quite longer than I was expecting. It is still shorter than 1,000 words (if you do not count the author's notes, lol). Anyways please enjoy this chapter.

Read & Review please and thanks!


	12. Stray Answers

**It has definitely been a while. I apologize for the long absence from this story, but life and lack of inspiration/internet have kept me away. Recently I've looked through this story and fixed many(still needs more revision) errors and grammatical errors in the past chapters and it brought back some feelings that I thought were gone. I had a lot planned for this story, and I think I'm ready to continue with this. After a change of title (I've despised that old title for so long) I think that things are going to be a little more smooth for me and these chapters getting submitted. Also I'm not sure if this title I switched it to already exists. I feel that there is already a story out with a similar title, so just a disclaimer that I did not take this from anywhere. Also, Not making any promises, but I'll try my best to get this story completed soon. It's not dead yet.**

**One more thing I've been thinking about this story's plot about the chief rituals and I feel that this story is more of an alternate universe type thing. If you can't tell right now this story is a mix of both the show and video game so that's why there are many different scenes and characters from both. So I once again apologize if the chief rituals are over exaggerated, but I feel like in order to be a ruler of such a chaotic village you have to prove worthy of handling anything Pupanunu related. Hopefully it makes for a good story.**

**One more change, Illusion Juju name has been changed to Mirage Juju. I feel that fits better. **

With a flash of light and smoke residue, Tak and Keeko appeared in Aurora's realm.

"Wow, this place is pretty." Keeko gaped as he admired the many colors and clouds around them. Tak, however, had more important things on his mind. He walked to the furniture-like clouds where he found his target, or should we say targets. He almost jumped when he heard Fauna's yelp of pain. Moon Juju was tending to her hands, which looks painfully burned and scarred; from what Tak had no idea.

"Tak!" He watched as Flora jumped up and hugged him, "What a surprise! We weren't expecting you."

"Correction, _you _were not expecting him." Fauna interjected as Moon Juju finished bandaging her hands. Fauna got herself comfortable in the armchair like cloud before she asked "So what do you need to know?"

Tak clenched his fists. So many questions popped into his mind he could barely even get his question through gritted teeth, "Why?"

Fauna thought about how she would respond to this question. So she started from the beginning, "Well, first of all, you can blame psychic juju for informing me. He couldn't wait to blab to the whole Juju Realm about Jeera and her future. So I saw this as an opportunity for myself. There have to be some perks for helping out the future chief of the Pupanunu, so I did what I could. I can't tell you why Princess decided she wanted to go for it in the first place, that's something you'll have to ask her." She shrugged.

Tak grit his teeth, He was more frustrated than angry, because he knew he wasn't going to get any more information from stubborn Fauna. He racked his brain so see if there was anything he could do from this point, Jeera might need him...

"Tak, calm down," He felt a soft hand on his shoulder and turned to see his mother, "I know you're worried about Jeera, but I'm sure she'll be fine. Our sister can be a grouch at times, but I think she'll go easy on her."

"Wait, sister?!" Tak, Fauna, and Flora all said at once. "So we've had another aunt this entire time and we didn't know?" Fauna asked.

"You _have_ met before," Moon juju interjected. "Do you both not remember meeting her? I know it was when you both were little, but I would think it would slip your minds so quickly."

"Then you can talk to her?" Tak looked with hopeful eyes. "Tell her to stop the whole thing, so Jeera won't get hurt."

Aurora Juju just shook her head, "Tak, as much as I would like to help, we cannot get in the way. It's in destiny's hands now, and as much as I care about Jeera, it's her decision, obviously she has her reasons for doing this; we have no reason to stand in her way. Do you even know why she would do this?"

"I-" Tak started, then stopped. He really didn't understand why Jeera would do this. He would assume she would know how dangerous this process would be, and even after seeing the small scene from the graveyard she still went to the next phase. He realized he would get nowhere asking others about this situation, he'd have to go to the source. "I'm going to find her." Tak said before he raised his staff.

"No Tak." This time it was Moon Juju to grab his arm, "You cannot interfere. It's too dangerous, not only for you to interfere, but for Jeera as well. Any danger she would be in would double, and your magic would be no match against the wrath of Mirage Juju. For both your safety you should stay here. Mirage Juju is very peculiar about these things."

"So who is this Mirage Juju and why is she so important in the rituals?" Keeko asked from seemingly nowhere.

"Well, really all three of us are connected to the Pupanunu" Moon Juju proclaimed, "The location of your village is prime location for our mystical abilities, and our connection with the people is practically instinctive." She conjured up a ball with a series of gestures with her hands. Tak, Keeko, Flora, and Fauna all looked into the orb to see an image of the village. The chief was walking and talking with a couple of the elders, while Jibolba helped masked man with his flock of sheep. Just everyday village life going on, _'with Jeera missing in the picture'_, Tak thought to himself. The scene changed from that to a bird's eye view of the entire four rivers area.

"When darkness Juju told the Juju Realm that that they could no longer help the Pupanunu's it was almost laughable for us." Moon Juju explained. "After the law was set, the three of us all but separated ourselves and our Realms from the Juju's. Not out of spite, but it was agonizing to think that we would not be able to interact with our strongest connection to the mortal world. So we three took responsibility to make sure that the people would be stable. I aided as the protector."

"I, the supplier, the foundation of where your powers of Juju come from. Many of the Juju's would not come willingly when the shamans called during those times. My Jewel doesn't necessarily force the Juju's to come forth, but it helped with the secrecy to keep Darkness Juju from coming across the traces of magic Juju's left in their trails.

"While Mirage Juju received the more isolated of the duties, the judge. We can aid the people or even provide everything they ever need or will need. What we required was that there was an icon that could lead the people down the right path and not one of corruption."

"So together we thought of the Chieftain rituals. A series of tough tests that target the will and wit of aspiring chiefs. Only those who show the qualities and promise of a good leader are even supposed to be informed of the existence of these trails. Of course we know the special case of Jeera..."

"Basically what you are saying is that there is nothing we can do?" Keeko stated plainly.

Aurora Juju shook her head slowly, "There is not. As with her father before you all were even born, we will have to let destiny run its course."

"Her father? What does the Chief have to do with this?" Tak questioned.

Moon Juju chuckled, "Let's just say that some traits are passed down from one generation to the next." She waved her arms and formed another orb from the air with the intent that they see what it beholds. Tak realized that he was going to get answers, but not to the question or dilemma he originally had in mind.

For nothing ever was that straightforward; that would be too unlike destiny.


	13. Anger

"The rituals," Jeera uttered in an shaky tone.

The Juju made no reaction she heard her. "The Rituals! I'm here to" Jeera hesitated before she completed her sentence, "become the next chief."

The Juju slowly smiled, but Jeera could have been making this up in her mind. "So young, I was expecting the other to come; truly I cannot ruse myself to believe that thought. I could tell she could not handle the duties imposed upon her."

Jeera realized she meant Zaria. Could Zaria have made it to this point if the crazy shaman hadn't interfered in her dreams? The Juju moved one finger and like that Jeera's binds were free. "Stand child and prepare, this test is not over yet, and you have made it to the finals." Jeera quickly took her place. She had no idea what kind of test this would be, but she startlingly didn't feel any tenseness as she looked into the Juju's character. The fear and nerves from earlier were gone, and out the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of gold and saw it was the staff, her staff, laying on the ground waiting for her to pick it up. She claimed it, while the Juju seemed surprised at the sight of the object. "Ah, I see a curb in the fates. The staff has chosen thee, there must be more to you young Pupanunu that meets the eye, however the laws have been set centuries before your time, and I do not take likely to offenders."

The Juju reached behind her, and from some undisclosed place she brought out a very long, slender, and quite extravagant double-edged sword. With it she traced a half circle from behind herself to the front and slowly lifted it up to Jeera's eye level. "In normal circumstances this scene would be a different one, but assuming you know what is about to come, let's change the scenery. In my own realm I am physically useless while my magic is limitless-" She swiped the air suddenly, a flash of light and like that Jeera felt sick to her stomach. When it was all over she fell from the shock to the ground. She smelled the familiar scent of grass, though from the feel of it she could tell she was not back in the mortal world. She opened her eyes the sight of floating islands and dense clouds- she could tell this was the spirit world again. She wondered if Fauna was still around.

"No distractions young Pupupnunu, your attention should be on your future prize-" Jeera turned to the new voice and shock overcame her. She stared wide eyed at Illusion Juju, the name was fitting as she did not even recognize the new figure before her. No longer a near dead skeleton, she looked... Beautiful.

"I understand your surprise at my sudden change of appearance," the juju swiftly moved her blade arm in a horizontal fashion, "but you may want to focus if you want to live!"

Jeera felt a trickling down her arm and was surprised once again to see blood. _This lady isn't playing around, _she thought as her heart started to beat faster.

She almost didn't catch the juju as she swiftly threw another attack, but this time, her staff did the work. It deflected the Juju's blades as it found its way back to Jeera's hand. She realized this was more than just some decoration.

"The staff is a part of you now." The Juju spoke and snapped Jeera's attention back to the task. "I say, you are the first Chieftain to acquire the staff from the sacred library. It was left long ago by Chief Ikan who also served as the Shaman for the Pupununu's. That staff holds much power just by its association with his past spirit. Is it destiny that the same path he took to become a chief, you and your father have taken as well by not following the laws set by the Juju's who associate with your protection?"

Jeera said nothing, She assumed the Juju was being rhetorical so she focused more on what she was going to do to get through this test. She wasn't as fearful as she thought she would be, however had no idea how she could stay alive. This staff had magical properties, but how would she be able to use such a thing? She wasn't a shaman, and even the little amount of experience she had with Taks' staff was nothing to compare with this. Where's a teaching scroll when you need one?

The Juju wasted no time however as she threw the next blow. this time it was flames that shot from her hands and swelled around Jeera. Once again the staff started to glow and created a barrier around Jeera's form and protected her from the damage. Three more times the juju attacked her and every time the staff would glow and protect its new owner. This was pretty easy, but Jeera new there was no way she could win a test just sitting back and letting the staff deflect the constant attacks. Who knew how long this could go on for? So she thought as she watched the Juju. What was her weakness?

Tak laid in his Hammock as his brain filled with circumstances he had no control over. Jeera, these trials, amazingly were all he needed to take his mind off of the continuous misfortune of the tribe. Maybe the magic realm is as caught up with the trails as much as he and the chief were; it was the calm of the mortals. In a way that bothered Tak. The one time he needs some excitement to take his mind off of worry, he doesn't have it. He needed some action.

Despite how comfortable he was, Tak managed to get up and take action. He would go a train in the jungle a little while and let this frustration out. He would skip over the meditation part since he's done enough thinking for the entire three moon cycles.

Jibolba was in the main room and he spoke, "I'm about to go train." He said simply.

Jibolba gave a concerned look for a second, but nodded his head in approval. He would rather Tak do something productive with his time than be brash and do something drastic. "Be sure to watch your power outage. We both know how stressful things have been concerning the 'situation'. Be sure to go closer to cliffs or closer to the mountain to refrain from causing too much damage. And take some calming powder with you! It may come in handy for your meditation when you finish."

Tak grumbled as he did what his mentor told him. He grabbed a small jug from the shelf and the jar with powder in it and sifted the substance into it. He already made up his mind about the meditation, but he would make it look good for his uncle. When he finished he left and conjured his personal rider to make his journey. He wanted to be as far away from civilization as possible. He's ready to let loose.

Jeera was exhausted. Even as the staff protected her, she was feeling worn out and all she did was stand still! There was more to this than she first expected. She couldn't just sit in her current kneeling position forever. This was a Juju, who knows how much power and energy she has in her? So she conjured her strength and channeled it into the staff, a blast of violet shot out at Illusion Juju who got a direct hit. Jeera knew she wasn't expecting that, however now was her chance to move. Quickly she made a sprint towards her opponent. She waved her staff and focused her strength once again and sent an energy wave that hit the still discombobulated Juju.

Great understanding came to Jeera at this time. This wasn't some form of Juju magic. The staff vibrated in her clenched hand as it felt her adrenaline. This was her, the staff was an extension of her- taking her energy and making it into powers of her own, she felt exhilarated, almost manic. She became trigger happy as the juju rose from the ground, but Jeera gave her no time to conjure an attack. She swung her staff once again, followed by three blasts as she gained more ground between them.

_ 'This girl is more than I expected' _Illusion Juju thought, she actually felt a little winded from Jeera's blows. She couldn't be beaten by a law breaker- not again. "Nice try GIRL! You almost made me sweat a little," She bluffed as she thought in her mind how she would gain an upper hand.

However, Jeera was on a power high. She jumped high in the air and came down, slamming her staff on the ground causing the round island they were on to shake and the surface to split. It slightly threw the Juju off balance, just enough time for Jeera to come at her with another swipe of the staff. She then held the staff vertically and beams emerged from the rings all aimed for the Juju. Jeera blasted and the force blew her away, and she fell down through the clouds and landed on another island adjacent to the one where Jeera stood.

Jeera couldn't see the Juju through the dense clouds, but she smiled, almost sadistically, breathed heavily. She never felt this way before, this rush of power. She felt pumped all over- she loved to fight, but she never imagined that it could ever feel this good.

Illusion Juju lifted herself from the ground. Embarrassing. How could she have let a mortal _child_ get the upper hand on her!? It wasn't even like the past, where her opponents at least attempted to outsmart her, this girl actually managed to harm her and overpower her. No, not overpower, but anger her. Illusion Juju clenched her jaw. her body emitting her power as she got up to rid the universe of the foolish child. She was not in her right mind. Her cool, calm stern demeanor changed to hostile and violent. Her face solemn, she floated on a dark cloud back up to the platform where Jeera was.

This was now a full out war.


End file.
